Beyond Symbiosis: Cleaner Shrimp Clean Up in Culture

Thane A Militz; Kate S Hutson

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117723

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Beyond Symbiosis: Cleaner Shrimp Clean Up in Culture

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Beyond Symbiosis: Cleaner Shrimp Clean Up in Culture

Thane A Militz and Kate S Hutson

PLoS One, Vol.10(2), e0117723

2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0117723

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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.

Details

Title: Beyond Symbiosis: Cleaner Shrimp Clean Up in Culture
Authors: Thane A Militz (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Kate S Hutson (Author) - Queensland University of Technology
Publication details: PLoS One, Vol.10(2), e0117723; 11
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Date published: 2015
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117723
ISSN: 1932-6203
Copyright note: Copyright © 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.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; Australian Centre for Pacific Islands Research; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450468902621
Output Type: Journal article

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