Newbie Question about Ghost/Glass Shrimp

[namgill]

I have been reading everything I can find on the Palaeomonidae family of (ghost) shrimp and trying to determine the difference between Palaeomonetes kadakensis (which are freshwater) and Palaeomonetes pugio (which are brackish). Obviously, my first batch of ghost shrimp are the latter, since the babies are all planktonic larvae in the hundreds, if not thousands. And the adults are not doing well, either, although my water conditions are testing fine (but, freshwater, not brackish). All I could find on the krib was that “reproduction traits are what most distinguish the purely freshwater species from the brackish species…” What I would like to ask the experts of ShrimpNow! is: what are the other distinguishing factors, if any?

I really enjoy these little guys and would like to have the correct kind.

Thanks!
- NAM

[Veneer]

Are you sure you do not, in fact, have Macrobrachium or Palaemon sp.?

At any rate, you'll probably find http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/0091.pdf helpful.

[namgill]

Thanks, Veneer,

That is really helpful. Mine don't match any of the illustrations exactly, so there's still no telling, but it does illustrate exactly how difficult the differentiation is. There is a certainly a plethora of good information in the file.

Thanks!