Marine Invertebrates of Bermuda Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus) By Zachary Schuller and James B. Wood (Ed) Abstract  Taxonomy  Habitat  Ecology  Recent Research  Commercial Importance  Bermuda Laws  Personal Interest  References  Links

Abstract


Stenopus hispidus belongs to one of the three families that are associated with cleaning fishes. They can be found in shallow tropical waters of the Indo- Pacific region and western Atlantic. S. hispidus is the largest known cleaner shrimp and is very important to the ornamental trade because of its beautiful coloration and low maintenance in an aquarium. This shrimp is found in pairs which mate for a lifetime. Mating can only take place when a female is vulnerable in the ecdysis molting phase. S. hispidus performs four distinct courtship behaviors in order to acquire a and once together they stay with each other for a life time. There are no natural predators of S. hispidus that were observed to prey on this shrimp. The collection of S. hispidus makes up most of the marine ornamental trade which worldwide makes over 200 million dollars annually (Shuman et. al 2004). Resent research has been conducted on the ecological aspect of S. hispidus and better methods of capturing them in order to prevent over fishing of the species.



Copyright Jeffrey Jeffords


Taxonomy


Phylum: Arthopoda
  Class: Crustacea
    Subclass: Malacostraca
      Order: Decapoda
        Family: Stenopodidae


Habitat


Stenopus hispidus is distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region from the Red Sea and South Africa to the Hawaiian and Tuamotu Islands (Limbaugh et. al 1961). Although not found in the eastern Atlantic, S. hispidus can be found in the tropical waters in the western Atlantic from Bermuda and off the coast of North Carolina to the gulf of Mexico and southern Florida (Zhang et. al 1998). S. hispidus can be commonly found in the shallow waters of Bermuda. Just beyond the low tide line, these shrimp are found to inhibit low turbulent waters of about 2 to 4 meters deep where reef fish are abundant. These shrimp make homes of crevices in rocks, undercut mats of rhizomes of the turtle grass Thalassia, disregarded man mad objects such as buckets and tires (Limbaugh et. al 1961). S. hispidus like other cleaner shrimp are very territorial and remain within a one meter area for as long as a year.


Ecology


Three families of small, brightly colored shrimp have been observed to remove and eat parasites, injured tissue, and possibly undesirable food particles from various reef species, these are stenopodidea, penaeidea, and caridea (Limbaugh et. al 1961). The family stenopodidea consist of Stenopus hispidus which is the largest of the known cleaner shrimps reaching lengths of more than seven and a half centimeters with females sometimes larger than males (Limbaugh et. al 1961). These shrimp obtained several common names such as barber pole shrimp, banded coral shrimp, and coral banded shrimp due to their striking coloration. They have a white body with 3 broad crimson bands supported by long bluish legs and slender red and white chelipeds or claws (Sterrer 1986). For locomotion, S. hispidus is equipped with 4 walking legs called periopods and swimmerets for swimming located under the abdomen. Three white antenna which are two and a half times bigger than S. hispidus can be seen swaying with the current while the shrimp remains hidden in its den. S. hispidus uses its antenna to attract the attention of fish in need of cleaning and as sensors to help enable the shrimp to navigate at night. These areas sometimes become to be known as cleaning stations. Like other cleaner shrimps, S. hispidus relies highly on their host for food but can be omnivorous to a certain degree (Limbaugh et. al 1961). In order to obtain food S. hispidus and cleaner shrimp in general have to make it obvious when they are wiling to clean. To accomplish this S. hispidus is known to perform a dancing behavior where it stands in a conspicuous spot on the reef near its home and whips its antenna while swaying side to side (Becker et. al 2006). This dancing behavior was observed in the lab by Becker et. al (2000) by placing a host fish in a glass tank where two S. hispidus can be seen on the other side. One of the shrimp was starved while the other was feed. The starved S. hispidus was observed engaging in the dance twice as frequent as the feed shrimp and in return the host fish spent eleven times more time trying to engage with the animal (Becker et. al 2006). These results show that the dancing behavior observed in cleaner shrimp serves as a signal to let fish know that their station is open and they are ready to feed/clean. When a fish approaches a station it flashes colors to signal to the shrimp that it is in need of cleaning. The fish approaches the home of S. hispidus and allows the shrimp to begin removing the parasites from him. S. hispidus uses its large chelipeds and three sets of smaller claws called maxillipeds to scrap and pick off food and parasites from the hosts body, mouth and gills or wherever needed. After the cleaning is done the fish will swim off and S. hispidus will either continue to advertise if he or she is hungry or return into his home. It is not uncommon to see a fish resting against a rock while S. hispidus remains in its home only cleaning the parts it can reach with its chelipeds and maxilliped.

Stenopus hispidus has a hard exoskeleton made of chiton which limits the growth of the shrimp. In order to increase their size they must replace their confining exoskeleton with a larger one and subsequently grow to fill it (Change 1985). This process consist of four stages, ecdysis, proecdysis, metedysis, and anecdysis. These steps occur in a continuous cycle and takes place in a mature female S. hispidus about every 16 days at temperatures of 26 to 30 degrees Celsius (Zhang et. al 1997). The cycle of molting is very important for the mating of S. hispidus because mating in the species occurs only when the female is vulnerable in the ecdysis period. Recently molted females that are soft are receptive to mating and attractive to males within the first 24 hours after molting (Zhang et. al 1998). In order for successful mating there are certain behaviors in which the male and female both take part in. These can be divided into five steps: (1) Antennule contact: The male slowly approaches the female establishes antenna contact and wave their claws at each other (2) Erection of the female body: the female turns around and raises its abdomen (3) Grasping: the male approached the female with its abdomen raised and holds the female against him (4) Mating: the male turns himself 180 degrees to the female so his head is at the females tail still remaining abdomen to abdomen (5) Spawning: The male leaves and the female begins to spawn 10 to 15 minutes after the mating (Zhang et. al 1998). The eggs appear as a greenish mass and are placed on the swimmerets underneath the female’s abdomen and hatch 16 days later at night (Debelius and Baensch 1997). After the hatching of the eggs the larvae remain attached to the female for some weeks and then become planktonic, undergoing seven metamorphosis in order to become an adult (Herrick 1893).

The adult Stenopus hispidus does not seem to have any natural predators. The symbiosis between the shrimp and the reef community is highly developed to a point where the shrimp can safely enter the mouth and gills of a fish without being eaten. In an experiment by Limbaugh et. al (1961) S. hispidus was placed in a tank with an octopus which readily eat crustaceans. The shrimp was not eaten until the octopus went without food for several weeks. However S. hispidus is not entirely immune from predators indicated by two shrimp exoskeletons where found in the stomach of a grouper by Randall and Brock (1960).


Recent Research


Recent research has been focusing on the harvesting and grow-out of the larvae of Stenopus hispidus in order to maintain the ornamental trade of the species without affecting the reef. Instead of using harmful chemicals such as cyanide or explosives to remove adult S. hispidus from the reef to be sold, scientist are developing techniques to catch the postlarvae before they settle onto a reef. The idea behind this is that the abundance of postlarvae shrimp is very high and in the wild there are only a few that actually settle to a reef because mortality rate is high due to predation (Hair et. al 2004). Harmless crest nets and light traps are used to catch the postlarvae and they are placed in holding chambers until they have grown to a size when they can be sold. By growing S. hispidus in masses Hair et. al (2004) found there to be a high mortality rate among the shrimp due to their aggressive nature. In order to deal with the fighting, the shrimp were place in isolated black containers. They found that the black containers were very successful in blocking the light but also in growing algae. The algae that grew on the shrimps exoskeleton led to loss of appendages and eventually death. Further research has yet to be conducted on successful low mortality grow out techniques. Although raising S. hispidus in black containers rear low numbers of shrimp these simple techniques can be handle by most age groups of children and is an advantage for family ran operations in undeveloped areas. The capture techniques also benefit the reef species since they will not be affected like they were when dynamite and cyanide where used.


Commercial Importance


The coral banded shrimp is a popular aquarium species. Because of their colorful body and relative ease in which they can be maintained in an aquarium environment Stenopus hispidus is by far the most valuable and abundant ornamental species (Hair et. al 2004). In a grow out experiment by Hair et. al (2004) ten shipments of fish worth a total of $245 dollars were sold with S. hispidus contributing $144 dollars. The worldwide import value of marine ornamentals is estimated to be 200 to 300 million US dollars annually with 80 percent of the exports coming from the Philippines and Indonesia (Shuman et. al 2004). Since most of these countries are undeveloped fishing villages they rely on selling ornamental species such as S. hispidus to maintain a living.


Bermuda Laws


There are no Bermudian laws governing Stenopus hispidus.

Personal Interest


I first became interested in Stenopus hispidus when I was working in the Roger Williams University wet lab one day. I have always walked by these two tanks that were covered with black plastic bags labeled “ Do no disturb” and never really had a chance to catch a glance over what was inside. One day I just happened to walk by and the plastic bag was off and standing in a white PVC pipe was this amazing looking shrimp. I remember thinking to myself, how cool would it be to actually see one of these shrimp in the wild. I knew that they couldn’t possibly be found locally since I had to maintain the water temperature at 72 degrees Fahrenheit everyday, plus when was I going to study somewhere warm? Little did I know that two years later I was going abroad to study in Bermuda and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.

Within the first two weeks in Bermuda we were snorkeling for a bunch of marine phyla at Concrete beach. I was messing around trying to get a lobster out of its hole for the phylum Arthropoda when suddenly I saw these long with antenna sticking out of a crevice of a rock. I sat there and observed a creature who I thought I would never see in person. Sure enough Stenopus hispidus wandered out of its home where I was able to gentle cup it into my hands and place it into a collection bucket. Later on I was able to examine the shrimp closer and my fascination for the creature led me to write this.

Also while working in the wet lab I was able to observe and take part in a grow out study of Stenopus hispidus larvae. I helped in setting up a system for which the larvae would be grown out in. The head advisor that was conducting the research had previous success in growing the larvae and from what I remember was hired to help us with our program. I was able to talk to him about his research and learned that not to many people were able to grow S. hispidus past day 21. He told me that with the proper system and right type of feeding, mortality rates would decrease and the shrimp will have better success in growing to become adults. Unfortunately by the time the system was set up and larvae place into it, I had to leave for summer break. It will be interesting to go back to school and see what sort of success they had in growing the shrimp.


References

Becker, Justine H.A., Curtis, Lynda M., Grutter, Alexandra S. 2005. Cleaner Shrimp Use a Rocking Dance to Advertise Cleaning Service to Clients. Current Biology, 15: 760-764.

Chang, Ernest S. 1985. Hormonal Control of Molting in Decapod Crustacea. Amer. Zool., 25: 179-185.

Debelius, H., Baensch, H. 1997. Baensch Marine Atlas, Vol. 2. Morris Plans, NJ: Tetra Press.

Hair, C., Warren, R., Tewaki, A., Haro, C., Phillips, W. 2004. Catching and rearing postlarval cleaner shrimp for the aquarium trade: results from a WorldFish Center project in Solomon Islands. NAGA, WorldFish Center Quarterly. Vol. 27 No. 1&2 Jan-Jun 2004.

Herrick, Francis H. 1893. The Life History of Stenopus. Mem. of the Nat. Acad. of Sci., 5: 339-352.

Limbaugh, Conrad, Pederson, Harry, Chace, Fenner A. 1961. Shrimps that clean fishes. Bull. Mar. Sci. Gulf & Carib. 11: 237-257.

Lin, J. 2005. Marine Ornamental Shrimp: Aquaculture, Biology and Conservation. Proc. Gulf Caribb. Fish. 56: 649-660.

Randell, J.E. and V. E. Brock. 1960. Observations on the ecology of epinepheline and lutjanid fishes of the Society Islands, with emphasis on food habits. Trans. Amer. Fish. Soc., 89 : 9-16.

Shuman, Craig S., Hodgson, Gregor, Ambrose, Richard F. 2004. Managing the marine aquarium trade: is eco-certification the answer?. Environmental Conservation, 31: 339-348.

Sterrer, Wolfgang. Marine Fauna and Flora of Bermuda. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, INC, 1986. 499.

Zhang, Dong, Lin, Junda, Creswell, R.Leroy. 1997. Effect of eyestalk ablation on molt cycle and reproduction in the banded coral shrimp, Stenopus hispidus. Journ. Shell. Research. Vol. 16, No. 2, 363-366.

Zhang, Dong, Lin, Junda, Creswell, R.Leroy. 1998. Mating behavior and spawning of the banded coral shrimp. Journ. Crust. Bio. Vol. 18, No. 3, 511- 518.



Links

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