Aquarium hitchhikers: attached commensals imported with freshwater shrimps via the pet trade

The keeping of home aquaria is one of the most popular hobbies globally. In contrast to the ornamental fish trade, decapod crustaceans such as shrimps, crayfish and crabs are relatively new to the pet trade. Nevertheless, the popularity of ornamental shrimp in freshwater aquaria has rapidly increased in recent years. Indonesia is one of the leading producers and exporters of ornamental aquatic animals globally and the Czech Republic is a gateway for these animals into the European Union territory. The pathway for introductions of organisms unintentionally moved in association with ornamental shrimps via the international trade has to date not been evaluated. We examined a small number of shrimps imported from Indonesia into the Czech Republic in May 2015 and found large numbers of the protozoan Vorticella sp., one species of scutariellid temnocephalidan (Caridinicola sp.), and one species of bdelloid rotifer, associated with two species of atyid shrimps, indicating an invasion risk from fauna carried unintentionally by this vector. Although our observations were limited in scale, we estimate the total number of commensal fauna imported into the Czech Republic with ornamental shrimps via the pet trade to be in the order of hundreds of thousands per month. As attached organisms can directly or indirectly cause diseases in certain species of decapod crustaceans, we recommend five steps to reduce risks of introduction of “hitchhikers” to aquaria and wildlife.