Anyone kept one of these? (1 Viewer)

[incysor]

Last night on the way back from KarenB's place I stopped in Aquarium World because traffic sucked, and I needed some ghost shrimp anyway.
(Sound like rationalization to you?) LOL

Anyway, I did something I rarely do. I made an impulse buy. I bought what they had labled as a 'Purple candy shrimp". I hadn't ever seen one, and I asked one of the women if she could give me any more info. She said she couldn't but she'd go as Dave. Dave came up and said that he hadn't been able to find out much info, but that the little that he had found said they were basically scavengers, and they 'thought' that they were reef-safe. He said that he had to look them up in some taxonomy book that wasn't even in english. I asked if he happened to remember the scientific name. He said he could look it up real quick, while they were bagging it up.

He said he couldn't remember the species name but that the genus was Gnathophyllum, and that there weren't many in the genus. I figured I'd be albe to find something today online. So today in between jobs I searched. I couldn't find anything. I finally just figured that he had misremembered and I started broadening my search. Well it only took me about an hour, (after I'd been looking in the wrong place for four), to find that what I got was this. Periclimenes imperator.

http://www.eco-divers.com/rodklein/10.html

I called Dave to let him know. I figured maybe it would make it easier for him to find them. After all they're pretty, and as long as they will do ok in the tanks they should sell pretty well. He gave me some song and dance that about the fact that Periclimenes, and Gnathophyllum were the same order. Then asked what I'd found out. I told him that I'd found lots of images, and a few pages that pointed to them being commensal shrimp, that stuck around cucumbers, and spanish dancer nudibranches, and he started questioning that info, saying that the sites were probably just hobbyist sites, and if it wasn't a university site, it didn't mean anything.

Once again they've reinforced my opinions about them.

Anyway, now that I've blathered on for a half a page, has anyone kept these before? Is it likely to NEED a commensal partner? Or is it likely to be ok in my tank with nothing to predate it? Let me know if you've got any info on particular foods or anything I should know.

Thanks, and sorry for writing a book here.

B

 

[Bakapuma]

That is one cool looking shrimp

 

[Guest]

shrimp

I can not answer your question, but wow, what a nice little guy. May I ask a price range for this guy and do they have any more?

Jen

 

[incysor]

They didn't have any more.

$25.

I really should listen to my own advice, and not buy stuff that I haven't researched.

So far everything I've read points to them mainly using cucumbers, and spanish dancers as protection/transportation. So hopefully there won't be something missing from it's diet without them.

B

 

[t0mmy108]

you can see if it takes to an anemone or an LPS coral like a hammer or frogspawn. Looks really cool. I've never seen one personally.

 

[Melodyepta]

Cool looking shrimp. Have you posted anything on wwm? Maybe one of the grand poobahs there can give you some more info.

 

[MarkieB]

Wow,
Very nice find!

 

[Guest]

Could be they just surf the cucumber, eating infauna that stirred up by the cuke, gaining protection from the cuke's presence. Since they have a variety of hosts (including a pencil urchin) I'd think it unlikely that they have strict requirements.

Think of it this way. You're more conscientious, and more knowledgeable, than most reefers, so you are that particular animals best hope for survival.

Let us know what you observe the shrimp doings (yes lots of pics required.)

 

[incysor]

Could be they just surf the cucumber, eating infauna that stirred up by the cuke, gaining protection from the cuke's presence. Since they have a variety of hosts (including a pencil urchin) I'd think it unlikely that they have strict requirements.

Think of it this way. You're more conscientious, and more knowledgeable, than most reefers, so you are that particular animals best hope for survival.

Let us know what you observe the shrimp doings (yes lots of pics required.)

Multiple hosts is why I'm hoping it will do ok in the tank. Well that and since I keep sexies I don't have any fish/shrimp/etc.. that'll bother it.
I hadn't seen the urchin listed as a host yet, just the spanish dancer, and cucumbers.

So far It's hung out on the ledge of rock I put it on. When I got home last night it was on leading edge, and I had a bad angle to shoot a picture, but I figured I could sort of get it. While I was getting the camera it moved underneath the ledge where I could just barely see it, but there wasn't any way I was gonna be able to get a shot. I'm gonna be doing a lot of maintenance over the next couple days, so hopefully it will be out and I'll be able to get some pics. The repaired camera showed up in the mail yesterday. I haven't had a chance to give it a try yet though.

B

 

[incysor]

Cool looking shrimp. Have you posted anything on wwm? Maybe one of the grand poobahs there can give you some more info.

I actually read a couple small blurbs on there about it. Basically the same info I found on other sites, that it's a commensal shrimp.

They had some good pics of shrimp it's related to though.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/palemonidae.htm

B

 

[Ophiura]

I have a reference guide by some taxonomists to the Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific (Gosliner, Behrens and Williams - all at the Cal Academy of Sciences). Its a pretty enough book that I can have it at the office without giving away that I am surfing around saltwater sites It says this for Periclimenes imperator:

"The species is found on several hosts, including the nuribranch Hexabranchus where it is found near the gill, feeding on fecal pellets; the sea cucumbers Stichopus, Bahadschia and Synapta and the sea star Gomophia"

{later edit: I see this is basically the same as the WWM site, except for the fecal pellet comment}

The cukes are all sand sifting types.

They say that Dr. A.J. Bruce has written over 100 papers on commensal shrimps so that may be another name to google.

 

[incysor]

Sweet. I'll add the name to the search, and see what I can find.

Thanks.

B

 

[jamesw]

I saw a lot of these while I was in Indonesia. They not only live on Cukes, but they live on large flatworms and nudibranchs as well. Who knows what they eat!

Here are a few pix:

Living on a large flatworm:

Closeup:

Living on a "medusa worm" cuke:

They are also known to live on fire urchins.

HTH
James

 

[incysor]

Interesting...They do have medusa worms at City Pets.

Thanks James.

And as usual those are simply amazing pics.

B

 

[Guest]

http://www.edge-of-reef.com/macruri/MACpericlimenesimperatoren.htm

last pic there shows one on a slate pencil urchin. Some of the Nudibranchs pictured look like ones I've seen at City Pets, but I know better than to try to ID a nudibranch without a key

 

[jamesw]

Thanks,

These are incredibly cool critters and I wish you the best of luck. I'd personally try a cuke (like the medusa) as I know they thrive in aquaria. If the shrimp starts hosting on it, make sure to get a photo.

Cheers
James

 

[incysor]

Thanks James.

I know about the nudis Surf, but beyond the problem of me trying to identify one correctly, they just don't survive because of their specialized diets.

I think I'll try a cucumber, or medusa, and see how it goes.

B

 

[incysor]

I hadn't seen this guy in awhile. When I was breaking the tanks down I found him in my anthellia. He made the move into the 30g with no problems, and finally found the cucumber. I haven't managed to get a good angle since they hooked up, but so far so good.

B

 

[incysor]

So here's a few new pics. The shrimp finally found the cucumber, and is happily riding it around the tank. Unfortunately the pics aren't great because I'd just added kalk to the tank when the pair came out of the rock.

B

 

[FishGameRock]

Neat!