Malacostracans · Decapoda · Atyidae

Camacuto Shrimp

Atya scabra

Least Concern

The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk. See full glossary

The camacuto shrimp, known in Spanish as cosol and also as gazapo among the riverside communities of southern Colombia, is a freshwater shrimp of the family Atyidae. They can reach a length of about 89 mm in males, while females are generally smaller, reaching about 64 mm. It lives on rocky bottoms in rivers connected to the Atlantic Ocean. The species is widespread from Mexico to Brazil, Cuba, Jamaica and the Caribbean islands. In Colombia they are found on the Pacific coast, in the area of the Telembí and Patía rivers. In Africa, it is found along the tropical Atlantic coast, from Liberia to Angola, as well as on the Cape Verde Islands and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea.

Size

5 cm – 10 cm

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Easy

FreshwaterOmnivore Colonial Freshwater Crustacean

9countries

Fun facts

Its claws have turned into filtering fans: it opens them into the current like a net and then brings them to its mouth.
It is amphidromous: the adults live in fresh water, but the larvae must travel down to the estuary and back upriver, so dams and weirs fragment its populations.
It neither hunts nor digs: it filters. Its claws are modified into fans of dense setae that it holds out against the current to catch suspended particles, and it also scrapes biofilm off the stones.
Stomach content analysis gives 91 % detritus, 7 % plant remains and 1 % arthropod fragments.
Its cycle is amphidromous: the eggs hatch into larvae that need brackish water, and the juveniles then work their way back up the river against the current. That makes it almost impossible to breed in captivity.
The males are considerably larger than the females: up to 8.9 cm against 6.4.
In northern Brazil it is used as fishing bait, and a closed season from May to August and a minimum size of 7 cm have been proposed to keep the populations up.