Isopods and Amphipods

The primitive, minute crustaceans can be found everywhere, as commensals and as parasites on oysters, in sponges, and hydroid masses, crawling like little bugs over algae clumps, in oceanic, brackish and fresh water. Everything eats them.

Watch Isopod and Amphipods videos on youtube.com
Giant Isopods . Six-Gill Shark Attacking bait at 1600ft . Breaststroke Isopod . Amphipod nest . Antarctic amphipod

Ar-1140 FISH LICE, Argulus sp.

Collected from stingrays and flounder. Currently unavailable.

Each: $13.00

Wharf roaches (Ligia exotica)

Ar-1150 WHARF ROACH, Ligia exotica

A large, scavenging isopod that scurries over wharf pilings. Browses on seaweed cast up on the beach. Can reduce its high body temperature by evaporating water off body surface. Has been used in neurological research on activity of neurogenic hearts. Size: 2 – 4 cm.

Each $10.00

Dozen: $67.50

Ar-1180 SKELETON SHRIMP, Caprella acutifrons

An amazing grotesque little amphipod that bends, flexes, and flips around hydroid colonies, scraping diatoms and debris from the branches and polyps with its huge flat claws. The females carry their young in brood pouches. Skeleton shrimp make excellent live food for fish. They are shipped attached to the hydroid colonies on which they live. Size: 0.25 – 1.0 cm.

Small collection 20 shrimp: $31.50

Large collection 50 shrimp: $48.00

Ar-1190 BEACH HOPPER, Orchestia

Amusing, bouncing, semi-terrestrial amphipods that live in seaweed cast upon the high beach. They’ll drown if kept underwater, and will desiccate if too dry, but they make excellent aquarium food for fish. Size: 0.5 cm.

Per 50: $55.00

Ar-1191 TUBE-BUILDING AMPHIPODS, Corophium and Jassa sp

Filter feeding amphipods that build tubes out of detritus. Occasionally found living in the drains of our tanks. Currently unavailable.