Ecological traits of Caribbean sea anemones and symbiotic crustaceans

Abstract

In Caribbean coral reefs, many crustacean species associate with sea anemones, but only a few are anemone symbionts. We examined several ecological traits of 3 anemone species (Bartholomea annulata, Condylactis gigantea, Lebrunia danae) and their crustacean symbionts (6 species) on a coral reef at Puerto Morelos, Mexico. On average, C. gigantea was the largest and B. annulata the most abundant of the 3 anemone species. Season did not affect the density distribution of any species, whereas reef zone (back reef, fore reef, reef channels) significantly affected density and mean size of B. annulata and C. gigantea, but only density of L. danae. The probability of harboring crusta ceans increased with anemone size in all species, but varied with reef zone and season in B. annulata only. These patterns may be due to different microhabitat requirements, reproductive strategies, or photosynthetic plasticity of dinoflagellate endosymbionts among hosts, and different flow regimes among reef zones. Alpheus armatus and Ancylomenes pedersoni were strongly associated with B. annulata, and Periclimenes rathbunae with L. danae. Thor amboinensis and Mithraculus cinctimanus occurred more often in C. gigantea, while P. yucatanicus was more evenly associated with the 3 hosts. Only Ancylomenes pedersoni and T. amboinensis occurred in conspecific groups more often than expected by chance. Commensal complexes of up to 3 symbiont species occurred in all host species, with symbionts that typically used different parts of the host coexisting more frequently. These results provide a baseline to assess the potential influence of local and global anthropogenic stressors on anemone−crustacean symbioses.

Temporal patterns of Pederson shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni Chace 1958) cleaning interactions on Caribbean coral reefs

“…Ancylomenes pedersoni is the most common cleaner shrimp on Caribbean coral reefs and has been shown to effectively remove ectoparasites, including gnathiid isopods, monogenean flatworms, and juvenile cymothoid isopods, from reef fish (Bunkley-Williams and Williams 1998;McCammon et al 2010;Briones-Fourzan et al 2012), although one gut content analysis from shrimps in the wild showed only the presence of fish mucus and no parasite ingestion (Turnbull 1981). Whether A. pedersoni preferentially targets some types of ectoparasites, as in cleaner gobies, is unknown.…”

“…The obligate cleaner shrimp Ancylomenes pedersoni (formerly in the genus Periclimenes; see Okuno and Bruce 2010) commonly forms cleaning stations with various species of reef-dwelling sea anemones (Limbaugh et al 1961;Bunkley-Williams and Williams 1998;Wicksten 1995;Briones-Fourzan et al 2012;Mascaro et al 2012;Huebner and Chadwick 2012a, b;Titus and Daly 2014) and co-occurs with Caribbean cleaner gobies in terms of habitat, depth, and geographic range (Humann and Deloach 2006). Ancylomenes pedersoni is the most common cleaner shrimp on Caribbean coral reefs and has been shown to effectively remove ectoparasites, including gnathiid isopods, monogenean flatworms, and juvenile cymothoid isopods, from reef fish (Bunkley-Williams and Williams 1998;McCammon et al 2010;Briones-Fourzan et al 2012), although one gut content analysis from shrimps in the wild showed only the presence of fish mucus and no parasite ingestion (Turnbull 1981).…”

Contrasting abundance and contribution of clonal proliferation to the population structure of the corkscrew sea anemone Bartholomea annulata in the tropical Western Atlantic

“…The corkscrew sea anemone Bartholomea annulata ( Le Sueur 1817) is the most abundant actiniarian species on Caribbean coral reefs (Briones‐Fourzan et al. ), and is ecologically important because it hosts the obligate cleaner shrimp Ancylomenes pedersoni as well as a variety of other crustacean symbionts (Mahnken ; Knowlton & Keller ; Briones‐Fourzan et al. ; Huebner & Chadwick ,b; Cantrell et al.…”

Evidence of niche conservatism and host fidelity in the polar shrimp Lebbeus kiae n. sp. (Decapoda: Caridea: Thoridae) from the Ross Sea, Antarctica

“…However, given that its northern polar counterpart Bolocera tuediae (Johnston, 1832) is known to have powerful toxins in its nematocysts (Vader & Lönning, 1973;Calton et al, 1978) and is also used as a host by a variety of other crustaceans including amphipods (e.g., Vader, 1970) and other shrimps (e.g., Howard, 1982;Jonsson et al, 2001), it is reasonable to infer that its Antarctic counterpart, B. kerguelensis, also provides protection from predation for Lebbeus kiae n. sp. Further support for this inference comes from the observation that Bolocera species on coral reefs in the tropics are also selected as hosts by a variety of shrimp species (Briones-Fourzán et al, 2012). The radial orientation of individuals of Lebbeus kiae n. sp.…”