[Objective] Bdellovibrio-and-like organisms( BALOs) are small-sized,parasitic bacteria that rely on other Gram-negative bacteria for survival. Our work aimed to characterize the community diversity of BALOs associated with tropical shrimp ponds. [Methods] We collected water samples from eight shrimp ponds culturing Litopenaeus vannamei,in Zhanjiang,China,and extracted total DNA of the samples. Then the 16 S rRNA gene clone libraries were constructed following PCR amplification with BALOs family-specific pri...