Beyond symbiosis: cleaner shrimp clean up in culture

Militz, Thane A., and Hutson, Kate S. (2015) Beyond symbiosis: cleaner shrimp clean up in culture. PLoS ONE, 10 (2). e0117723. pp. 1-11.

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Abstract

Cleaner organisms exhibit a remarkable natural behaviour where they consume ectoparasites attached to "client" organisms. While this behaviour can be utilized as a natural method of parasitic disease control (or biocontrol), it is not known whether cleaner organisms can also limit reinfection from parasite eggs and larvae within the environment. Here we show that cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, consume eggs and larvae of a harmful monogenean parasite, Neobenedenia sp., in aquaculture. Shrimp consumed parasite eggs under diurnal (63%) and nocturnal (14%) conditions as well as infectious larvae (oncomiracidia) diurnally (26%). Furthermore, we trialled the inclusion of cleaner shrimp for preventative parasite management of ornamental fish, Pseudanthias squamipinnis, and found shrimp reduced oncomiracidia infection success of host fish by half compared to controls (held without shrimp). Fish held without cleaner shrimp exhibited pigmentation changes as a result of infection, possibly indicative of a stress response. These results provide the first empirical evidence that cleaner organisms reduce parasite loads in the environment through non-symbiotic cleaning activities. Our research findings have relevance to aquaculture and the marine ornamental trade, where cleaner shrimp could be applied for prophylaxis and control of ectoparasite infections.

Item ID: 37698
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1932-6203
Additional Information:

© 2015 Militz, Hutson. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funders: James Cook University
Date Deposited: 05 Jun 2015 02:30
FoR Codes: 07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES > 0704 Fisheries Sciences > 070404 Fish Pests and Diseases @ 60%
07 AGRICULTURAL AND VETERINARY SCIENCES > 0704 Fisheries Sciences > 070401 Aquaculture @ 30%
06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0602 Ecology > 060201 Behavioural Ecology @ 10%
SEO Codes: 83 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 8301 Fisheries - Aquaculture > 830102 Aquaculture Fin Fish (excl. Tuna) @ 50%
96 ENVIRONMENT > 9604 Control of Pests, Diseases and Exotic Species > 960407 Control of Pests, Diseases and Exotic Species in Marine Environments @ 50%
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