Saron marmoratus
| Saron marmoratus | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Family: | Hippolytidae |
| Genus: | Saron |
| Species: | S. marmoratus |
| Binomial name | |
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Saron marmoratus (Olivier, 1811) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Saron marmoratus, the marbled shrimp, is a species of "cleaner shrimp" from the family Thoridae, although its taxonomic position is subject to some controversy as many authorities have considered it to be a member of the family Hippolytidae sensu lato. It's normally found in the Indo-Pacific region but in 2013 it was found off the coast of Lebanon, probably having reached the Mediterranean by Lessepsian migration through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea. It is a popular species in aquaria due to its easy care.
Saron marmoratus is a rather hunch-backed dumpy species of shrimp. Its rostrum is slightly longer than its carapace and is strongly recurved, it has 1 or 2 spines on its dorsal margin, followed by 3 or 4 spines on the carapace, and there are 8-10 long spines on the ventral margin of the carapace. The dorsal margin of the carapace and the abdomen have tufts of setae, which are denser in the females. The males have elongated chaelae which are longer than body and the females possess an obvious brush-like structure of setae on the first pair of legs. The legs feature brown or blue transverse bands. They are variable in colour and the ground colour can be red, blue or brown, mottled with brown or green, the legs are marked with blue or brown transverse bans.
Saron marmoratus has an Indo-Pacific distribution. Its distribution extends from the Red Sea south to Madagascar and Mozambique east through the Persian Gulf, India, south east Asia through the southern Pacific, including Australia as far as Hawaii. In 2013 specimens were observed close to underwater caves off the coast of Lebanon, and it is likely that this species undergone a Lessepsian migration through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea into the Levantine Sea.
Saron marmoratus is occasionally seen on reefs but it is more frequently found among coral and coral rubble, in the infralittoral to sublittoral zone, within lagoons. It is quite an inactive species which relies on camouflage against the often encrusted substrate. When threatened, it quickly but stealthily swim into a hiding place but, if immediate danger threatens, it can shoot off very quickly and for some distance. It is nocturnal and it can vary the colour of its body so that at night it turns primarily red, camouflaging the shrimpin the twilight.
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Wikipedia