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Dental service
Cleaner Shrimps - Lysmata amboinensis feeds by eating scraps of food, dead skin and parasites from other bigger marine animals, especially Moray Eels. When Moray Eels wants the 'cleaning service' it will opens its mouth and gills to let the Cleaner Shrimps or Cleaner Wrasses to get into them and will not eat them. The mouth opening is the signal for the Cleaner Shrimps to get into it and do their job.
In this picture, I managed to get my dive buddy to 'pretend' he is like a Moray Eel by opening his mouth and getting close to the Cleaner Shrimps. Within seconds, the Cleaner Shrimps swam towards the opened mouth and starts to dig into the teeth for scraps of food.
''Lysmata amboinensis'', the northern cleaner shrimp, is an omnivorous shrimp species, which will generally scavenge and eat parasites and dead tissue. ''L. amboinensis'' is naturally part of the reef ecosystem, and is widespread in the Red Sea and tropical Indo-Pacific.
comments (18)
You can see the Shrimp has 2 whitish leg-looking in the front, and its bigger than the regular legs, they used that to pick on food scraps and you can definitely feels it when it is digging/scraping on your teeth/gum. Posted 7 years ago
Thanks for your kind comments and appreciation :) Posted 7 years ago
Our Kang-a-thon concludes today with these two unusual beauties: an ostentatious sea slug and an underwater dentist! Enjoy!
We sincerely appreciate and treasure Albert’s contributions. Not only does he share his photos on JungleDragon, but he helps moderate the site, encourages other users, and humbly shares his knowledge for the benefit of the community. Thank you Albert!
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Many species of fish are vulnerable to parasites. To rid themselves of these parasites, the fish employ the help of cleaner shrimp, such as the northern cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinesis). Cleaner shrimp eat parasites and dead tissue from fish, providing them with a major source of nutrition. Likewise, the fish benefit from being cleaned. It’s a mutualistic relationship!
If a cleaner shrimp wants to run a successful business, rule #1 is to not get eaten by your clients. Imagine being a tiny shrimp…would you be brave enough to crawl into a big predator’s mouth to clean its teeth? Yikes. It’s definitely a dangerous, albeit nutritious, job. The shrimp set up cleaning stations where they can clean their clients, but then retreat safely into the grooves of the coral reef if threatened. The fish know to come to these locations when they are in need of a cleaning. The cleaner shrimp will do a little dance if it is open for business. Then, the fish simply swims over, opens its mouth, and the shrimp goes to work! And, as you can tell from the photo, cleaner shrimp do not discriminate between species. All mouths are welcome for cleaning. #JungleDragon #cleanershrimp #Lysmataamboinesis
https://www.facebook.com/jungledragonwildlife/ Posted 5 years ago
Did you watched the video? That was me in the video :D Posted 5 years ago