What do shrimp larvae eat?

Answer 1

When shrimp are still small (smaller than 1 cm), they do not live at the bottom of the sea; but float around in the water. They will mainly eat small plants and animals that are also floating around in the water. These small plants and animals are called plankton. Shrimp, however, grow quite fast (after a year they are usually 4 cm long) and they already live at the bottom of the sea. They also have started to eat a larger variety of food and more and more often they search for other small animals as food. Especially when it is dark, they will search for small mud shrimp, very small shellfish and worms. Shrimp even regard a dead crab or fish as a lovely meal. Smaller shrimp and shrimp that have just moulted (exchanged their shells) also have to be very alert to make sure that they do not meet hungry large shrimp because they eat each other (real cannibals!). As you see, shrimp are not too selective. That is why they are also called the great cleaners of the sea. Finding food in the muddy water of the Waddenzee is a difficult enterprise for shrimp. That is why they do not use their eyes to find food but they find it using their great sense of smell. Shrimp do not have noses like many animals on land but have a number of feelers on their heads with which they can smell very well. These feelers also help shrimp detect where exactly the aroma of the tasty snack is coming from.

Answer 2

There are over 2000 species of shrimp in the world. Some are carnivorous, some herbivorous, some omnivorous, and some are scavengers. Exact diet varies between species.

With thousands of shrimp species, many with different life cycles, many living in different parts of the world in dramatically different ecosystems, shrimp are opportunistic omnivores eating both plants and animals (dead and alive) which are nearest and easiest to grab and ingest.

Larvae shrimp consume whatever they drift with, namely plankton. Plankton may consist of algae, bacteria, and single cell plants or animals and detritus.

Many species migrate to shallow and brackish waters looking for food on the bottom. They eat plant detritus, worms, decaying animal parts such as clams, fish and snails. Many species are cannibalistic.

Farmed shrimp: they consume plant detritus, worms, decaying animal parts such as clams, fish and snails like their wild counterparts. With normal bottom surface movement shrimp stir up the bottom silt promoting the growth of algae. Some species are cannibalistic and are grown in less dense ponds.

By far, most food is introduced as fish food pellets or brine shrimp and fed at prescribed amounts per weight of growing shrimp. The bulk of farmed shrimp are from the Pacific Rim.

Answer 3

Depending on the species, just about anything, even each other.

Answer 4

They eat polychaete worms, amphipods, nematodes, caridean shrimps, mysids, copepods, isopods, ostracods, mollusks, foraminiferans, chironomid larvae, and various types of organic debris.

Answer 5

little tiny Worms that feed off of the ocean floor little tiny Worms that feed off of the ocean floor

Answer 6

Yes they do eat food says me Abbyy :] hahah.

Answer 7

shrimps are decompsers.

they live in the benthic

zone. an eat pretty much whatever they can scrap up.

Answer 8

Microscopic bits of plant/algae/rotifers etc.

Answer 9

Shrimp are shrimp. Fish are fish. I have never heard of a shrimp fish.

Answer 10

yes they do eat food.