FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Western

Stenopodidae 955
Stenopodidae Infraorder STENOPODIDEA
Family STENOPODIDAE
Stenopodid shrimps
Diagnostic characters: Usually
small-sized, with a body length from
1 to 6 cm. All 5 pairs of legs well developed,
with first 3 pairs of legs forming
a pincer, third pair huge and massive.
Abdomen with posterior part of pleura
covering anterior part of succeeding
pleura. Males and females without
large copulatory organ on first pair of
pleopods (abdominal appendages) or
posterior thoracic sternites, respectively.
Females carry the eggs on the abdomen
until hatching.
Habitat, biology, and fisheries: This infraorder
contains a single family and
about 60 species (divided into 2 families
by some authors). Altogether, 7 genera
and 19 species have been reported from
the Western Central Pacific. All species
are marine and benthic, and can be found
Spongicola venusta
from shallow coral reef areas to deep sea
(after Holthuis, 1993)
at depths of more than 800 m, with some
species living in symbiosis with other invertebrates or fishes. Amongst
these, the cleaner shrimps of the genus Stenopus and the venus shrimp
Spongicola venusta are best known. Stenopus shrimps inhabit coral reefs
and set up “cleaning stations” which are regularly visited by fishes which
allow the shrimps to clean their wounds, skins, and mouths. Spongicola
venusta lives in pairs inside the body of the deep-sea hextactinellid
sponges (i.e. the Venus’ flower basket). They enter the body of the
sponges when they are in the postlarvae stage. As they grow, their size
becomes too large and thus they cannot escape from the sponges where
both the male and female spend the rest of their life.
Members of this infraorder are generally without any economic importance.
Therefore, no species accounts are included here and no key is provided.For
keys to the genera of this infraorder users can refer to L.B. Holthuis (1993),
Hextactinellid sponges
“The recent genera of the Caridean and Stenopodidean shrimps (Crus-
(Venus' flower basket)
tacea, Decapoda): with an appendix on the order Amphionidacea,C.H.J.M. (after Tan et al., 1995)
Fransen and C. van Achterberg eds, Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum,
Leiden.” Only the cleaner shrimps of
the genus Stenopus may sporadically
enter the aquarium trade and have
some commercial value. In the Western
Central Pacific, the most commonly
found species is Stenopus
hispidus (Olivier, 1811). A key to species
of Stenopus isgiveninJ.W.Goy
(1992, J. Nat. Hist., 26:79-102), and
good colour photos of this genus are
included in H. Debelius and H.A.
Baensch (1994, Marine Atlas: The
joint aquarium care of invertebrates
and tropical marine fishes, published
by Mergus).
Stenopus hispidus