Sunday, February 6, 2011

Cleaner shrimp





Finding cleaning stations on the reef is always a treat. They are much easier to find when a fish is "parked" there, getting cleaned, assuming some atypical posture, like standing on its head, or motionless, with its mouth wide-open. Many times, the cleaners are fish, but Bonairean reefs have lots of cleaner shrimp as well.

Today, I was able to photograph two of the smallest cleaner shrimp: the Spotted Cleaner Shrimp (bottom 2 photos) and the Pederson Cleaner Shrimp (top 2 photos). Both species live in association with sea anemones. They perch on the anemone's tentacles, and wave their antennae to attract fish to clean. Both of these shrimp are about 3/4 inch in length.

Double click on the images to enlarge the shrimp.

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