Aquatic Invasive Species

Opportunistic Invaders

Crustaceana 82, 703-720 (2009)

One of the deciding factors of whether an exotic species will thrive in a given environment is its ability to find sufficient nutrients. The killer shrimp, (Dikerogammarus villosus), a species that originated in the Ponto-Caspian region, is currently invading areas of Europe. This species shows all the signs of a generalist feeder and may be able to invade the United States if given the opportunity. Dirk Platvoet of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues from around the world have analyzed the feeding behavior of the killer shrimp. They have found that the shrimp is able to gain nutrition from a multitude of sources, including “detritus feeding, grazing, particle feeding, coprophagy, predation on benthic and free swimming invertebrates, predation on fish eggs and larvae and feeding on byssus threads of zebra mussels.” This ability makes the shrimp a threat to bodies of water everywhere.