Candy Cane Shrimp

Photo Courtesy  Unknown (web)

Candy Cane shrimp are adorable and very shy.  Since they are preyed upon by many animals these little reef dwellers prefer shadows and under ledges.  They have two eyes at the front of their heads and surprisingly the eyes are made up of hundreds of lenses helping them to react with lightening speed if they see anything moving above.  Shrimp are crustaceans, meaning they have a hard outer shell.  With bottom dwelling shrimp, they have developed a shell that is transparent to better enable them to hide in plain sight.  The exoskeleton covering the animal’s head and thorax is called a carapace.  These decopods have six antennae which serve a very interesting purpose.  According to researchers the antennae contain sensory organs for taste and touch to aid in finding food.  When backed into the reef crevasses these shrimp have their antennae sticking out.  If a fish wants to be cleaned it will find these antennae and hold still, enabling the cleaner to caress the fish and find loose scales, dead skin and parasites.

Shrimp have three types of movement.  The first one is feeding, walking, or resting on legs called periopods.  These legs are intended for short distance uses.  The second method is using pleopods, or the swimming legs.  These are located under the abdomen and beat at the same time the shrimp swims.  Researchers believe a shrimp can swim two to five miles per day (the deep water kind).  The third method is a tail flex.  This is a rapid contraction of the strong muscles (they are made of muscle) resulting in a powerful snap that propels the shrimp backwards.  This helps the animal move rapidly to avoid predation.  Some shrimp species use this to leave the water!

The mating with these animals is also very interesting.  The female produces a gelatinous mass and the male will insert sperm into this.  The sperm will fertilize her eggs and she will keep them in a brood chamber which is located on the tail underside.  The female will lay her eggs in batches of up to 15,000 at one time.  The eggs may be attached to her flaps on the underside called swimmerets.    We have observed the hatching process to be within three weeks.  After hatching the larvae will change shape several times and continually molt (shed their outer shell).  This is called a metamorphosis.  Depending on the species, this process can take anywhere from 30 to 160 days.  Now, the young are sexually mature and ready to continue their lives, mating and reproducing.

Snorkeling in Hawaii allows marine life lovers to see many types of reef shrimp.  The water temperatures are cooling down quite a bit now that it is winter, but the sun is nice and warm.  Come and join us.  Weather permitting, we are out there every day.

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