''Ancylomenes pedersoni'', sometimes known as Pederson's shrimp and Pederson's cleaner shrimp, is a species of
cleaner shrimp
Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming Decapoda, decapod crustaceans that clean other organisms of parasites. Most are found in the family (biology), families Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboi ...
.
It is part of the genus ''
Ancylomenes'' and was described in 1958 by
Fenner A. Chace Jr. as ''Periclimenes pedersoni''.
''Ancylomenes pedersoni'' is found in the Caribbean Sea, often associated with a
sea anemone
Sea anemones ( ) are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemone ...
, at depths of . They are often found on the reefs off
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest.
Bermuda is an ...
.
Description
Pederson's shrimp is a small transparent shrimp with bluish and violet markings on the body and long white
antennae and within its range is unlikely to be confused with other species.
Ecology
Pederson's shrimp lives in association with a sea anemone, either ''
Bartholomea annulata'' or ''
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 Florida ...
'', living among the tentacles with impunity. Before it can do this it needs to acclimatise itself to the anemone by progressively pressing its body and appendages against the tentacles for increasing periods of time. After this it is able to move between the tentacles without getting stung but if it is separated from its host for a few days, it will need to repeat the immunizing procedure. Up to 26 shrimps have been found associated with one sea anemone but usually there are just one or two. The shrimp offers cleaning services to passing fish and attracts their attention by lashing its antennae about. Fish visiting the
cleaning station will remain stationary while their external
parasites
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...
are removed and eaten by the shrimp, which even cleans inside the gill covers and the mouth. If a
neon goby
''Elacatinus'' is a genus of small marine Goby, gobies, often known collectively as the neon gobies. Although only one species, ''E. oceanops'', is technically the "neon goby", because of their similar appearance, other members of the genus ...
sets up a cleaning station nearby, the shrimp will clean the client fish at the same time as the goby does.
[ Researchers have shown that fish recognise the sea anemone ''Bartholomea annulata'' as being a place at which the shrimps' services are likely to be available. The larger the sea anemone, the more likely fish are to visit it.]
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{Portal bar, Crustaceans, Marine life
Palaemonoidea
Crustaceans described in 1958
Fauna of the Caribbean
Caridea of the Atlantic Ocean
Crustaceans of the Dominican Republic