The Fairy Shrimp is a freshwater crustacean that swims on its back and it can often be found in vernal pools. Vernal pools are temporary pools that are formed by rainwater and don't usually hold fish. These pools are often seen in autumn, winter and spring, but not in summer because they dry up.

The Fairy Shrimp is about two centimetres long and can be white, grey, orange-red, blue or green. It is translucent which means that light can pass through its body. It has a head that curves downwards and a tail that curves upwards. It also has a long body. It has eleven pairs of legs which are used for swimming. The Fairy Shrimp also has two black eyes on stalks and two pairs of antennae. It doesn’t have a shell that covers its body like other shrimps have.

The female Fairy Shrimp produces ‘summer eggs’ and ‘winter eggs’. The summer eggs are carried for a short while in a brood sac on the underside of her abdomen and the young develop inside the brood sac. The winter eggs are also carried in the brood sac, but they are released after a short while to sink to the bottom of the vernal pool. The winter eggs dry out with the vernal pool in the summer and the young hatch out about thirty days after the pool has filled with rainwater again.