Can you identify this reef animal? Image by Larry P. Tackett
March 27, 2020
Can you name this little invertebrate, which sometimes enters the reef aquarium trade?
Clues
1] It’s from the Indo-West Pacific.
2] It is tiny, growing to just one inch (2.5 cm) in length.
3] It is usually found living with a sea anemone or coral.
—from REEF LIFE 2020, the CORAL Calendar.
Unless there’s something different about it, this animal is not from the Pacific. Its Periclemenes yucatanensis, the Spotted anemone shrimp found in Florida and throughout the Caribbean. I’ve caught them in corkscrew and Condylactis anemones here in Florida and the Florida Keys.
According to photographer Larry Tackett, a long-time CORAL contributor, the shot was taken in Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Periclemenes yucatanensis is very similar to the Indo-Pacific species shown. See “Click for answer” for the identification.