Acanthuridae are the family of surgeonfishes, tangs, and unicornfishes. The family includes about 86 extant species of marine fish living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs. Many of the species are brightly colored and popular in aquaria.
The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into 9 subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, most of them less than 20 cm (7.9 in) long, although the largest, the humphead wrasse, can measure up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft). They are efficient carnivores, feeding on a wide range of small invertebrates. Many smaller wrasses follow the feeding trails of larger fish, picking up invertebrates disturbed by their passing. Juveniles of some representatives of the genera Bodianus, Epibulus, Cirrhilabrus, Oxycheilinus, and Paracheilinus hide among the tentacles of the free-living mushroom corals & Heliofungia actiniformis.
The false cleanerfish is a species of combtooth blenny, a mimic that copies both the dance and appearance of Labroides dimidiatus, a similarly colored species of cleaner wrasse. It likely mimics that species to avoid predation, as well to occasionally bite the fins of its victims rather than consume parasites. Most veiled attacks occur on juvenile fish, as adults that have been attacked in the past may avoid or even attack A. taeniatus.
A cleaning station is a location where aquatic life congregate to be cleaned by smaller creatures. Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including fish, sea turtles and hippos.
Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming decapod crustaceans, that clean other organisms of parasites. They belong to any of three families, Hippolytidae, Palaemonidae, and Stenopodidae . The last of these families is more closely related to lobsters and crabs than it is to the remaining families. The term "cleaner shrimp" is sometimes used more specifically for the family Hippolytidae and the genus Lysmata.
Mucophagy is defined as the act of feeding on mucus of fishes or invertebrates. Also, it may refer to consumption of mucus or dried mucus in primates.
The French angelfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a marine angelfish belonging to the family Pomacanthidae. It occurs in the Western Atlantic Ocean.
Cleaner fish are fish that show a specialist feeding strategy by providing a service to other species, referred to as clients, by removing dead skin, ectoparasites, and infected tissue from the surface or gill chambers. This example of cleaning symbiosis represents mutualism and cooperation behaviour, an ecological interaction that benefits both parties involved. However, the cleaner fish may consume mucus or tissue, thus creating a form of parasitism called cheating. The client animals are typically fish of a different species, but can also be aquatic reptiles, mammals, or octopuses. A wide variety of fish including wrasse, cichlids, catfish, pipefish, lumpsuckers, and gobies display cleaning behaviors across the globe in fresh, brackish, and marine waters but specifically concentrated in the tropics due to high parasite density. Similar behaviour is found in other groups of animals, such as cleaner shrimps.
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus, is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dead tissue off larger fishes' skin in a mutualistic relationship that provides food and protection for the wrasse, and considerable health benefits for the other fishes.
Elacatinus is a genus of small marine gobies, often known collectively as the neon gobies. Although only one species, E. oceanops, is technically the "neon goby," because of their similar appearance, other members of the genus are generally labeled neon gobies, as well. Except for a single East Pacific species, all reside in warmer parts of the West Atlantic, including the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. They are known for engaging in symbiosis with other marine creatures by providing them cleaning service that consists of getting rid of ectoparasites on their bodies. In return, Elacatinus species obtain their primary source of food, ectoparasites.
Elacatinus puncticulatus is a species of goby from the eastern central Pacific Ocean, where it is found on reefs from the Gulf of California to Ecuador. This species occurs at depths ranging from 1 to 21m, and usually in association with the sea urchin Eucidaris thouarsii. The size of the goby varies depending on sex, with females being typically smaller than males, and their geographical location as well as their role as a cleaner goby also has impacts on their morphology. Due to their bright coloration and lack of aggression, the species is commonly found in the aquarium trade.
The eight-lined wrasse is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a wrasse from the family Labridae, which is native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It occurs on coral reefs at depths from 2 to 50 m, preferring to shelter in niches and caves. It can also be found in the aquarium trade.
The six-line wrasse is a species of marine ray-finned fish from the family Labridae which has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution. This species is associated with coral reefs and can be found in the aquarium trade.
Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a healthy reef, many of them hidden or well camouflaged. Reef fish have developed many ingenious specialisations adapted to survival on the reefs.
Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos, commonly called the bluestriped fangblenny, is a species of combtooth blenny found in coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian ocean. This species reaches a length of 12 centimetres (4.7 in) SL. It is also known as the bluestriped blenny, bluestriped sabretooth blenny, blunt-nose blenny, cleaner mimic, tube-worm blenny or the two-stripe blenny. They hide in deserted worm tubes or other small holes.
Cleaning symbiosis is a mutually beneficial association between individuals of two species, where one removes and eats parasites and other materials from the surface of the other. Cleaning symbiosis is well-known among marine fish, where some small species of cleaner fish, notably wrasses but also species in other genera, are specialised to feed almost exclusively by cleaning larger fish and other marine animals. Other cleaning symbioses exist between birds and mammals, and in other groups.
Oxyjulis californica is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Pacific Ocean along the coasts of California and Baja California. Its distribution extends from Salt Point in Sonoma County, California, to southern central Baja California, near Cedros Island. It is a very common species; its common name in Spanish is señorita.
The chiseltooth wrasse is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a wrasse from the family Labridae. It is native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. It is an inhabitant of coral reefs and can be found at depths from 3 to 60 m, though rarely deeper than 40 m (130 ft). This species grows to 30 cm (12 in) in total length. It is of minor importance to local commercial fisheries and can be found in the aquarium trade. P. moluccanus is the only known member of its genus.
Lysmata grabhami is a species of saltwater shrimp in the family Hippolytidae. It was first described by Gordon in 1935. It occurs in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean and is a cleaner shrimp, operating a cleaning station to which fish come to have parasites removed.
Labroides bicolor is a species of wrasse endemic to the Indo-Pacific, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean and is known by various names including bicolor cleanerfish, bicolor cleaner wrasse, bicolored cleaner wrasse, bicolour cleaner wrasse, cleaner wrasse, two-colour cleaner wrasse and yellow diesel wrasse.
