Jiangsu man finds fairy (shrimp) at bottom of his garden

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-06-29

Fairy shrimps. (Photo/CNS)

A man in Lianyungang in eastern China's Jiangsu province has found a fairy shrimp in the water tanks that he uses to plant lotus, reports the online media outlet Jiangsu China based in Nanjing.

Zhang said he put out two water tanks for the lotus in his winter garden. He changes the water in the tanks regularly because the garden gets a lot of sunshine in the afternoon. He found it remarkable that a shrimp could survive in the high temperature of the water.

Zhang took the shrimp out of the tank and placed it in a glass bowl. The shrimp is about five centimeters long, mostly green color with a little bit of red on its tail.

Speculating on how the shrimp arrived in his tank, Zhang said there is no way the shrimp could have been hiding in the tank when he first set it out or came through the tap water. He suspected it may have come in dirt from the mountain that he added to the tanks.

An expert said the shrimp Zhang found is a fairy shrimp (anostraca), a type of crustacean that has been on Earth for around 200 million years.

The expert said fairy shrimp require soil that is high in sodium and its life cycle is around one to three months. Its eggs are small with a tough shell that can protect against heat and drought. In the soil, an egg can remain unhatched for years until the conditions are right.