While the east coast of Australia is home to Paratya, this complex of species does not occur in the south west of the country. I wondered if they even had "glass shrimp" over there, so before my last trip I started trying to find out. Of course they have glass shrimp - what area with enough water about doesn't? 

 

Over in SW WA they have Palaemonetes australis, a lovely shrimp which as it turns out is very widespread and occurred in every likely looking river I sampled. It's a bigger shrimp than most that we keep, probably 5-6cm total length from memory. It's fairly variable but unfortunately has tiny eggs - at least at the locations I checked - so it's difficult to raise the young in aquaria. 

 

I would love to give these a more serious try one day, so I wonder are any WA shrimpers keeping these? Or will they after reading this? 

 

Palaemonetes australis: 

 

I wasn't sure if this should go in "field trips" or here, and decided to make a different post in each section. In the field trip section there will be more shots and some other stuff too. Make sure you have a look! 

 

 

It's a nice looking shrimp and I would have considered it if not for being on the east coast (and thus unlikely able to source them)