As decapods, the shrimp have five pairs of legs, also there are thick tufts of hairlike setae at the end of the fingers.

[1] Mainly occurs in slowly flowing or still waters such as lakes and ponds, rivers, creeks and lowland streams including the lower salinity areas of estuaries.

The eggs are carried under the female's tail during August and September and hatch in late spring to early summer.

With the summer flows usually being at their lowest, the planktonic young avoid being swept out to sea.

Most of these shrimp live along the edges of streams where there is little or no flow and eat mainly algae and small particles of organic material they scrape from the substrate using the setae on their fingers.