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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, and by their movement patterns. Cleaner wrasses greet visitors in an effort to secure the food source and cleaning opportunity with the client.
Both species operate cleaning stations where larger fish (clients) visit and cooperate in the removal by the cleaner fish of their ectoparasites, loose flakes of skin and mucus. The arrangement is mutually beneficial , with the client fish having its parasites removed and the wrasse gaining protection and finding an easy meal.
The term "cleaner shrimp" is sometimes used more specifically for the family Hippolytidae and the genus Lysmata . 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 ...
The best known cleaner fish are the cleaner wrasses of the genus Labroides found on coral reefs in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean. These small fish maintain so-called cleaning stations where other fish, known as hosts, will congregate and perform specific movements to attract the attention of the cleaner fish. Remarkably, these small ...