Costs and benefits of the symbiosis between the anemoneshrimp Periclimenes brevicarpalis and its host Entacmaea quadricolor

Abstract

P. brevicarpalis are obligate associates of sea anemones. To assess the nutritional relationship between the shrimp and one of its hosts, E. quadricolor, 10 replicate experiments were conducted. Magnitude of growth, interval between molts, and number of larval releases were all dependent on whether a shirmp had been kept with an anemone but were independent of whether it had been fed. Magnitude of tentacle loss was dependent on whether the anemone had been with shrimp but was independent of whether it had been fed. Thus, there is a benefit to the shrimp from this association and potentially a cost to the anemone, but anemones with shrimp in nature always appear to have normally long and numerous tentacles. -from Authors