Kinne, O.; Aurich, H. (Ed.) (1967). Vorträge und Diskussionen. Erstes Europäisches Symposion über Meeresbiologie = Papers and discussions. First European Symposium on Marine Biology = Rapports et discussions. Premier symposium européen sur biologie marine. European Marine Biology Symposia, 1. Helgoländer Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 15(1-4). 669 pp., more
The aim of this investigation was to find out as many details as possible about the ecology and ethology ofAlpheus shrimps living in association with gobiid fishes. The methods employed were diving and direct observations; the long-term operations in the biotope were intended to serve as preliminary studies for future experimental work under aquarium conditions. The two species observed live in sandy-muddy sediments of lagoon-like, shallow waters between the tidal zone and shore reefs in depths where wave oscillations no longer cause movements of the sediment surface. They live in pairs, occupying tubes, which are burrowed just below and parallel to the sediment surface. Their unpigmented eyes seem to have little or no visual functions. Food is attained by digging in upper sediment layers. Association with the solitary gobiidsCryptocentrus caeruleopunctatus andVanderhorstia delagoae affords an optical warning system, enabling the shrimps to take their food outside the hole entrance directly from the sediment surface. Due to erosion at the entrance and burrowing in the opposite direction at the tube end, the living quarters are constantly changing. Between shrimps and fishes exist specific patterns of communication. Intensive movements of the fish function for shrimps as warning stimuli. The shrimps touch the fishes with their antennae, thus maintaining a constant contact. The fishes do not seem to be disturbed at all by this contact. This symbiosis provides gobiids with hiding and sleeping holes and shrimps with a warning system while outside their holes.
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