The spotted cleaner shrimp (''Periclimenes yucatanicus''), is a kind of

cleaner shrimp Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming decapod crustaceans, that clean other organisms of parasites. They belong to any of three families, Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboinensis''), Palaem ...

common to the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico ...

. These

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

live among the tentacles of several species of

sea anemone Sea anemones are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates of the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classifi ...

s. They sway their body and wave their antennae in order to attract

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

from which they eat dead tissue,

alga Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mi ...

e and

parasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...

Description

The spotted cleaner shrimp grows to a length of about . It has a transparent body patterned with brown and white saddle shaped markings. The

chelae A chela ()also called a claw, nipper, or pinceris a pincer (biology), pincer-like organ at the end of certain limbs of some arthropods. The name comes from Ancient Greek , through New Latin '. The plural form is chelae. Legs bearing a chela are ...

and legs are boldly striped in red, purple and white. There are two pairs of long white antennae banded in black.

Distribution

The spotted cleaner shrimp is found at depths down to about in the Caribbean Sea, southern Florida, the Bahamas and as far south as Colombia.

Life cycle

Breeding takes place in the summer and females have been seen brooding eggs under their abdomens in the months of July and August. After hatching, the

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

pass through several

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

ic larval stages before settling on the seabed and undergoing

metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...

into the adult form.

Ecology

The spotted cleaner shrimp lives in close association with a sea anemone, either ''

Condylactis gigantea ''Condylactis gigantea'' is a tropical species of ball anemone that is found in shallow reefs and other shallow inshore areas in the Caribbean Sea – more specifically the West Indies – and the western Atlantic Ocean including southern F ...

'', ''

Lebrunia danae ''Lebrunia neglecta'' is a species of sea anemone in the family Aliciidae. It is found in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Description ''Lebrunia neglecta'' is an unusual sea anemone in that its tentacles are almost hidden by the ring of ...

'', '' Bartholomea lucida'' or ''

Bartholomea annulata ''Bartholomea annulata'' is a species of sea anemone in the family Aiptasiidae, commonly known as the ringed anemone or corkscrew anemone. It is one of the most common anemones found on reefs in the Caribbean Sea. Description The ringed anemon ...

''. It lives among the tentacles and up to six individual shrimps have been seen on one sea anemone. It swishes its antennae around in the water to attract the attention of passing reef fish. When they pose motionless beside the anemone, it emerges from the tentacles and removes and feeds on external parasites and flakes of loose skin from the fish. It even enters the mouths of fishes and cleans behind their gill covers apparently with no likelihood that it will get eaten. It has also been found associated with the sea anemone '' Rhodactis sanctithomae'' in the US Virgin Islands, a species of anemone not previously recognised as a

symbiont Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

species. Also in the Virgin Islands, it has been seen on the tentacles of the jellyfish ''

Cassiopea ''Cassiopea'' (upside-down jellyfish) is a genus of true jellyfish and the only members of the family Cassiopeidae. They are found in warmer coastal regions around the world, including shallow mangrove swamps, mudflats, canals, and turtle gra ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3933821 Palaemonoidea Crustaceans of the Atlantic Ocean Crustaceans described in 1891