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A little Z. rex: on the predatory habits of the emperor shrimp 

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Abstract

The Indo-West Pacific emperor shrimp, Zenopontonia rex (Kemp, 1922) from the family Palaemonidae, was hitherto known as a peaceful symbiotic crustacean, feeding on very small organisms or detritus and other organic particles trapped in its varied hosts’ mucus. However, at two occasions in Indonesia, Z. rex was observed capturing and subduing relatively large and agile animals, representing completely new observations for the species’ diet and feeding behaviour. In the first case, Z. rex associated with the large chromodorid nudibranch Ceratosoma tenue Abraham, 1876 captured another palaemonid shrimp (Cuapetes sp.), only slightly smaller in size. In the second case, two individuals of Z. rex associated with a sea star, Echinaster luzonicus (Gray, 1840), were seen actively exploring the substrate under the star’s arms and one of them eventually captured and killed a juvenile/post-larval fish, probably a goby (Gobiidae). The second case represents one of the few in situ observations of a caridean shrimp killing a vertebrate.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Matahari Tulamben Resort Dive & Spa and its owner Ni Komang Suci, who provided YI with a wonderful opportunity to explore the underwater world of Bali. Dr. Ángel Valdés (California State Polytechnic University) confirmed the identification of the nudibranch, whereas Dr. Helen Larson (Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory) and Dr. Jeff Leis (University of Tasmania) helped identifying the post-larval fish. Dr. Charles H.J.M. Fransen (Naturalis Biodiversity Center) and an anonymous reviewer helped improving the quality of the originally submitted text.

Funding

The present study was realised without any external funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciências Biológicas/ICB-5, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Avenida Esperança s/n, Goiânia, GO, 74690-900, Brazil

    Arthur Anker

  2. Matahari Tulamben Resort Dive & Spa, Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia

    Yury Ivanov

Authors
  1. Arthur Anker
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  2. Yury Ivanov
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Correspondence to Arthur Anker.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The present article does not involve collecting and preservation of animals.

Sampling and field studies

The present contribution does not involve sampling of material and does not contain data from field studies.

Data availability

The authors did not use publicly archived datasets for this study, which is essentially a synthesis of the second author’s in situ observations placed in the context of a broader literature survey. A short video supporting the above observations is available on the journal’s repository as Supplementary Material.

Author contribution

The present study is a synthesis of in situ observations by YI and literature review by AA. The manuscript was conceived and written by AA and read and approved by YI.

Additional information

Communicated by E. Macpherson

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Predation of a larval fish (probably a goby) by the emperor shrimp, Zenopontonia rex (Kemp, 1922) in Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. Video by Y. Ivanov. See text and Fig. 3 for more details (MOV 247760 KB)

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Anker, A., Ivanov, Y. A little Z. rex: on the predatory habits of the emperor shrimp . Mar. Biodivers. 51, 60 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12526-021-01198-5

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