# How Small Can Shrimp Be? (and Still Wothwhile)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018 "2008-03-20T00:23:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/1 "2008-03-20T00:23:11Z")
For lunch, I had a cup of noodles-which included two dehydrared shrimp-which measured perhaps 0.5 inches from heat to tail. How on earth do you peel shrimp this small? Are they commercially raised? Or Wild? ---
**Author:** ![Bob55](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Bob55](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob55)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/2 "2008-03-20T00:47:52Z")
Well I’ve caught freshwater shrimp in the lakes in Florida, and they’re only about 0.25-0.5 inches long (about the size of a small paperclip). I wonder if restaurants serve those? ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/3 "2008-03-20T02:05:45Z")
> [@](#): > > shrimp-which measured perhaps 0.5 inches from heat to tail. I am having a hard time picturing where the heat is. The only living thing in the great salt lake is the Brine Shrimp. (Fish Food) IIRC Small one are great in a salad, But i like prawn on the plate. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/4 "2008-03-20T02:15:04Z")
[QUOTE=Bob55] I wonder if restaurants serve those? [/QUOTE] Usually you’d find them in a shrimp or shirmp and pasta salad. They are called 100/200 becuase there are between 100 and 200 of them in a pound. As for farm raised or wild caught, that will depend on the brand. ---
**Author:** ![NunOfTheAbove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@NunOfTheAbove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NunOfTheAbove)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/5 "2008-03-20T02:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=Gbro] The only living thing in the great salt lake is the Brine Shrimp. IIRC [/QUOTE] There are also lots of cool halophylic Archaea and even some bacteria, but brine shrimp are the only animals. Still, without the microbes, there probably wouldn’t be any shrimp. Here’s an abstract if you get bored - [http://www.dominican.edu/query/ncur/display\_ncur.php?id=806](http://www.dominican.edu/query/ncur/display_ncur.php?id=806) ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/6 "2008-03-20T02:48:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Here’s an abstract if you get bored I think i’ll just go and watch the snow melt 😉 Can one see any of the others with the naked eye? (if not then to me the brine shrimp is the only living thing). :o ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/7 "2008-03-20T08:57:31Z")
Brown shrimps used to be a popular item here in the UK - they’re caught by trawling with wide nets across shallow, sandy bays - the shrimps are about an inch long. > **[Brown shrimp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_shrimp)** > > More than one species shares the common name "brown shrimp": Commercially, shrimps and prawns are peeled by water jets, I think. Really small shrimp are ground up whole commercially - shell and all - to make flavouring for soups. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-small-can-shrimp-be-and-still-wothwhile/442018/8 "2008-03-20T14:20:29Z")
I think there are a lot of shrimp that they don’t bother peeling … like the dried shrimp snacks. In Indonesia, I think, they use almost microscopic shrimp to make a fermented shrimp sauce.