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clean·er fish
/ˈklēnər fiSH/noun
- 1. a small fish, especially a striped wrasse, that is permitted to remove parasites from the skin, gills, and mouth of larger fishes, to their mutual benefit.
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Cleaner fish are fish that show a specialist feeding strategy [1] by providing a service to other species, referred to as clients, [2] by removing dead skin, ectoparasites, and infected tissue from the surface or gill chambers. [2]
Cleaning symbiosis is a mutually beneficial association between individuals of two species, where one (the cleaner) removes and eats parasites and other materials from the surface of the other (the client). Cleaning symbiosis is well-known among marine fish, where some small species of cleaner fish, notably wrasses but also species in other ...
The Hawaiian cleaner wrasse or golden cleaner wrasse ( Labroides phthirophagus ), is a species of wrasse ( genus Labroides) found in the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands. The fish is endemic to Hawaii. These cleaner fish inhabit coral reefs, setting up a territory referred to as a cleaning station.
Cleaner wrasses are best known for feeding on dead tissue, scales, and ectoparasites, although they are also known to ' cheat ', consuming healthy tissue and mucus, which is energetically costly for the client fish to produce.
Bluestreak cleaner wrasses clean to consume ectoparasites on client fish for food. The bigger fish recognise them as cleaner fish because they have a lateral stripe along the length of their bodies, [9] and by their movement patterns.
A cleaning station is a location where aquatic life congregate to be cleaned by smaller beings. Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including fish, sea turtles and hippos.
Cleaner shrimp are so called because they exhibit a cleaning symbiosis with client fish where the shrimp clean parasites from the fish. The fish benefit by having parasites removed from them, and the shrimp gain the nutritional value of the parasites.
The crimson cleaner fish ( Suezichthys aylingi ), or butcher's dick in Australia, [2] is a species of wrasse native to the southwestern Pacific Ocean around Australia and New Zealand. This species inhabits patches of sand on reefs at depths of from 6 to 100 metres (20 to 328 ft). It is a cleaner fish.
Labroides bicolor is a species of wrasse endemic to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is known by various names including bicolor cleanerfish, bicolor (ed) cleaner wrasse, cleaner wrasse, two-color cleaner wrasse and yellow diesel wrasse .
Labroides is a genus of wrasses native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This genus is collectively known as cleaner wrasses, and its species are cleaner fish. [3]