White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) affects the penaeid shrimp culture industry, but the potential impact on the ornamental shrimp industry has not been studied. Therefore, experiments were conducted to determine the susceptibility of the ornamental peppermint shrimp Lysmata wurdemanni to WSSV. Litopenaeus vannamei, a cultured penaeid shrimp was used for comparison. Three experiments (two per os, one injection) were conducted. Adult shrimp were challenged in the first per os experiment, whereas juveniles were challenged in the remaining two experiments. In both per os challenges, shrimp (n = 15, 10) were fed WSSV infected L. vannamei tissue at 10% of their body weight. In the injection challenge, shrimp (n = 10) were injected with a 10⁻³ dilution of freshly prepared WSSV filtrate at 20 μL/g of body weight. Shrimp were individually housed, maintained at 25°C, and checked daily for mortalities. PCR was used to determine whether challenged shrimp were infected with WSSV. In all three experiments, L. wurdemanni appeared more resistant to WSSV than L. vannamei (40%, 0% mortality versus 60%, 100% mortality, respectively, because of WSSV). Results indicate that adult L. wurdemanni appear somewhat susceptible to the virus, whereas the juveniles appear refractory to the virus (40% versus 0% mortality), however as the adults and juveniles were collected from different geographical areas, genetic variation cannot be discounted. Although there are no reports to date of a natural WSSV infection in Lysmata or other ornamental shrimp species, the finding that adult Lysmata are susceptible to WSSV has implications for the ornamental industry.