Oil paint waxy membrane shrimp, also known as starfish shrimp, VIP shrimp, clown shrimp, a marine shrimp that lives in the coral reefs of the tropical Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and feeds on starfish.
Realm: Animal kingdom Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda Phylum Arthropoda
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Hymenoceridae
Genus: Hymenocera
Species: Oil-on waxy shrimp H. picta
The oil-colored waxy shrimp, about 5 cm long, the male is smaller than the female, and the body surface is white to creamy and has spots.
Reference to the ratio of oil painted waxy shrimp to human hands
The oil-painted waxy shrimp has two pairs of stepping feet and a pair of huge clawed feet with flattened eye shapes. The head has flap-like sensory antennae for hunting for prey.
Currently, the oil-colored waxy shrimp is the only species in the genus Membranous horned shrimp, but some studies believe that it should be divided into two separate species:
H. picta
It lives in the central and eastern Pacific Oceans , and the spots are pinkish purple with yellow margins.
H. elegans
It lives in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans , and the spots are more brown in color and have blue edges.
Pyrrum oleracea mainly lives in coral reef areas below the intertidal zone from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean coast and in Hawaii, preferring water temperatures of 22 to 28 °C.
The oil-colored waxy shrimp feeds almost exclusively on starfish, and even includes crown-of-thorn starfish, whose attacks can slow the damage done by the crown-of-thorn starfish to corals.
Crown of thorn starfish live in shallow waters such as the reef. The main food of the crown of thorn starfish is coral, which has caused large areas of coral death on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Therefore, too many crown of thorn starfish can pose a threat to coral reefs. Around 1970, australia's Great Barrier Reef, which stretched for more than 2,000 kilometres and was more than 50 kilometres wide, was ravaged by crown-of-thorn starfish. The poisonous spinous cells of the crown of spinosa starfish are poisonous and are neurotoxins.
They are very good at turning starfish over, nibbling on soft tissue and tubular foot until the center disc remains, and eating it all up in a matter of days. Sometimes starfish will cut off the attacked wrist and try to escape, and if the damage is too severe, it cannot regenerate.
The oil-colored waxy shrimp is very good at turning the starfish over, nibbling on the soft tissue and tubular foot parts until the center disc remains, and eating it all up within a few days.
Sometimes starfish will cut off the attacked wrist and try to escape, and if the damage is too severe, it cannot regenerate. Oleyl waxy shrimp also sometimes feed on the tubular feet of sea urchins, but only when they are very hungry.
Since during feeding, the oil paint wax shrimp can conserve the toxins they get from their prey (starfish), they are difficult to bite or even harmful to predators, so they do not need to move very quickly to avoid predators.
In the wild, the oil paint waxy shrimp is usually foraged in pairs of male and female shrimp, and the female shrimp is not only larger than the male shrimp, but also has a belly cap. Female shrimp can lay 100 to 5,000 eggs per spawn (due to environmental factors).
Young oil-on waxy shrimp
Because of the beautiful appearance of the oil painted waxy shrimp, people often fish and raise them as pets, posing a certain threat to their survival. Oleuroy shrimp has high requirements for the salinity and chemicals contained in the living seawater, and artificially modulated "seawater" often cannot be adapted to it, especially too high nitrate or copper ion concentrations may lead to their death. Oleuroy shrimp are usually moved in pairs and are often overlooked when reared, which can also lead to their death.