Clam Shrimp

The California Clam Shrimp is yellow to brown. It is flat and about the size of a dime when it is fully grown. The Lentil Clam Shrimp is smaller and more round. It is shaped like a lentil (a small, flat pea).

A Clam Shrimp soon outgrows its first shell. It sheds the old shell and replaces it with a new soft shell. The soft shell stretches and hardens to fit the Clam Shrimp's bigger body. This process is called molting. As the Clam Shrimp continues to grow, it will molt several more times. The adults can live for several months, or until the water is gone.

Clam Shrimp are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. They eat Algae, detritus, Bacteria, Protozoa and Rotifers. The California Clam Shrimp feeds in three ways. It can nibble on the Algae growing on plants or on the bottom of the vernal pool. It can bury itself in the muddy bottom and draw in food by waving its feathery appendages. It can also swim and filter food as it moves through the water. Clam Shrimp are strong swimmers but they usually only swim short distances.

Clam Shrimp are eaten by amphibians, such as the Western Spadefoot, Pacific Chorus Frog and California Tiger Salamander. Other predators include Mallards and other ducks, shore birds like the Killdeer, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets and other wading birds. The protein from Clam Shrimp provides important nutrition for migrating birds. They visit the vernal pools to quickly gather the nutrients they need to grow new feathers, migrate and lay their eggs.

California Clam Shrimp are one of the few crustaceans that you can find after the vernal pools dry up. Their large shells remain on the pool bottom after they die. If you walk and look carefully, you can find them lying there.

If you had to look in every vernal pool for Clam Shrimp shells, it would take a lot of time. It would be better to look only in vernal pools that are likely to have Clam Shrimp. What do you know about the ecology of Clam Shrimp that tells you what kind of pools to look in?