Against a white background the fairy shrimp look orange; you can also see some smaller copepods and other freshwater zooplankton. Fairy shrimp are tiny crustaceans that can be found in vernal ponds (small ponds that dry up every year). They spend dry parts of the year as eggs in the soil, and then hatch when the pond fills with water in late winter and early spring (it is late February in Indiana here). The shrimp are only about 4mm at this point. They will continue growing to their adult size of 20-30mm, lay their eggs, and die by late April.