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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.
Cleaning symbiosis is known from several groups of animals both in the sea and on land (see table). Cleaners include fish, shrimps and birds; clients include a much wider range of fish, marine reptiles including turtles and iguanas, octopus, whales, and terrestrial mammals.
There are two types of cleaner fish, obligate full time cleaners and facultative part time cleaners where different strategies occur based on resources and local abundance of fish. Cleaning behaviour takes place in pelagic waters as well as designated locations called cleaner stations.
Self-cleaning can sometimes be achieved if the fish stocks density is sufficiently high and the water level is sufficiently low. For example, if trout are stocked at 20 kilograms per cubic metre, they can keep the raceway unit clean by their swimming movements, preventing waste solids from settling to the raceway floor.
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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.
The shrimp also eat the mucus and parasites around the wounds of injured fish, which reduces infections and helps healing. The action of cleansing further aids the health of client fish by reducing their stress levels. In many coral reefs, cleaner shrimp congregate at cleaning stations.
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Ichthyotherapy is the use of fish such as Garra rufa for cleaning skin wounds or treating other skin conditions. The name ichthyotherapy comes from the Greek name for fish – ichthys. The history of such treatment in traditional medicine is sparsely documented.
Those fish serve as cleaners to larger host fish, which attend to have ectoparasites removed. The fangblenny does no cleaning, but bites the host fish and leaves. Its opioid-containing venom helps it escape, as it gives a pain-free bite which also dulls the host's reactions.