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can someone explain to me why shrimp and gobys pair up? will any goby and shrimp do this?

Funny you ask, I have a video all about the ocean and there is a segment about gobys and shrimp. They work together because it benefits them. Kinda like humans and guide dogs. The shrimp is usually the worker in the relationship, partly because they have poor eye sight and have claws to dig and move things. The goby is the look out, with better eyesight she can watch out for danger and also do more to protect the shrimp. They are also worse workers that the shrimp. I hope this helped.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Goby_fish_with_shrimp.jpg

Last edited by milkyboy at 09-Dec-2005 03:36

Milkyboy

It's called symbiosis.

And mutual relationship between two animals, in which one may or may not be benefitted, but neither is really harmed.

Another example would be the anenome and the clownfish. The anenome isn't truly benefitted in anyway by having the clownfish live in it, but the fish gets protection and a home.

Get it?

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Among the gobies I've encountered that are recorded as engaging in mutualist couplings with shrimp species are the following:

Lotilia gracilosa
Stonogobiops xanthorhinica
Stonogobiops nematodes
Mahidolia mystacina

and several Cryptocentrus species.

The shrimps in question include Alpheus randalli, though other species of Alpheus shrimp are also documented as engaging in such relationships.

The partnership is mutually beneficial, as the shrimp species in question either possess very poor eyesight or are totally blind. The shrimp excavates a burrow, providing a home for the pair, and the goby acts as 'lookout'. The shrimp always maintains contact between its long antennae and the goby, which in turn uses specific body motions to signal danger to the shrimp, whereupon both inhabitants of the burrow reverse into the burrow and remain out of sight of potential predators until danger has passed.



Last edited by Calilasseia at 09-Dec-2005 15:12

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