Abstract

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effectiveness of cleaner shrimp, Periclimenes pedersoni, at removing parasitic monogeneans from host reef fish, Acanthurus coeruleus. Wild caught fish were exposed to seawater flow from an open system aquarium exhibit containing high densities of parasitic monogenean eggs and larvae. Fish were assigned to one of two treatments: one giving fish access to cleaner shrimps that also included the anemone Bartholomea annulata for cover, and one that included anemones with no shrimps. We quantified loads of the ectoparasite Neobenedenia sp. from fishes with access to cleaners and those without. After 17 days, the average monogenean loads were more than four times higher, (134 per fish), for those without access to cleaners, compared with those with access to cleaners, (33 per fish). These results suggest that anemone-shrimp cleaning stations can play a significant role in the biological control of ectoparasites on Caribbean reef fishes and therefore, may be beneficial to the aquaculture industry. Future studies of marine fish habitat should consider the abundance of shrimp cleaning stations as potential correlates of fish health, which could influence fish distribution patterns in space and time.

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