(P.S: There are some problem with the image uploading, so I use links)
When I read a dive journey from Scuba Forum I visit frequently, I caught a story of cleaner fish. The writer was told by the Dive Master to observe a purple fish dancing on the reef; apparently it was a cleaner fish doing advertising for its service.
I was interested to find out more, so I went for some quick Google Search and found very fascinating stories about this species of fish.
I knew about cleaner fish and cleaner shrimp before, but I always associate cleaner fish only with remora, those bigger black and white stripe or grey fish with fat head, they are mostly found attached to big fish like sharks, turtles and…., divers.
Many times during the dives, this remora would try to attach itself to our back, tank, thigh and I saw it trying to get inside my friend’s short when he was diving with short and shirt. Of course we chased the molester away.
Remora:
http://i12.tinypic.com/43gmrud.jpg
Because I’m curious about the purple color the writer mentioned, from the search I found out that cleaner fish actually consist of many species of fish.
Other cleaner's pictures:
Cleaner shrimp on Angelfish:
http://i12.tinypic.com/2hwnok8.jpg
Purple and Yellow cleaner between clients:
http://i12.tinypic.com/4cvm8p5.jpg
Black and White Stripe:
http://i12.tinypic.com/30cvsyh.jpg
Black and Yellow cleaner fish:
http://i12.tinypic.com/4c3hkex.jpg
Fangblenny (the fake!)
http://i12.tinypic.com/2m7x285.jpg
This yellow and black stripe fish, adult size are less than 10 cm, I liked to observed them from a very close range because I thought they are fangblenny, the type of goby I like to see. In Asia Water, we can see this type of cleaner almost everywhere, I sometime spent few minutes only to look at the face of that fish, as I was trying to find the fangblenny smile, cleaner fish doesn’t smile, but fangblenny yes, because actually, my favorite fangblenny is a nasty nasty type of fish, I’ll explain later.
For diving, we have season about where, when and what to see in some particular diving spot. For example, in Bali, we have to pay more to specially visit Manta Point, because we want to see manta ray. And why? Because Manta Point is the cleaning station for manta ray so we are most likely to find them there. Also, when we do weekend dives in West Malaysia, during the ‘almost monsoon’ period, actually around now, October, some divers had reported that they saw manta, which is very rare, because it’s their cleaning season.
Now I understand fully what is cleaning season. I always thought that it’s the time when water is rich with plankton, therefore manta comes. But seems like it has more to it.
So, back to cleaner fish.
Cleaner fish provide cleaning service to their client (fish). They usually do their advertising and the client will come to try their service or the client will purposely look for cleaner fish when they feel they need some shower.
For the statistic, one cleaner fish can clean up to 2500 client per day and eat about 1200 parasites per day. Seems to me that fish are not very hygienic species, they can get a lot of parasites on the skin, some species seek for cleaner about 150 times a day and if they can’t find cleaner, they can have five times the number of parasites within short period of time and growing.
For client who needs the salon service, they will position themselves weirdly, like hovering with their head down and stand still, then the cleaner will come and inspect them. For cleaner who want some client, they will do some dancing movement or approach the client and touch them to let them know that “Don’t eat me, I want to clean you.”
So that is mostly the business going on.
But there are many funny facts that keep me smiling and enjoy my ..ehm..research.
If there are many clients at the same time, the clients would have to queue, bigger and stronger client will try to cut queue by chasing others away. But of course, the cleaner will decide which one it wants to serve first. They usually pick those most infected fish = more food, or more tasty fish, or they can pick the client they familiar with.
Yes, they recognize.
I said more tasty, that is for cheater cleaner.
Cheat is when the cleaner, instead of picking the parasites, they bite the client skin. Apparently, it’s tastier. The consequences, the client will not use this particular cleaner service anymore, and to punish them, they will chase the cleaner. I would borrow one researcher saying, Imagine that you chase you hairdresser around the block because they cut your ear.
But cleaner fish don’t anyhow cheat, because they actually care about their reputation and image. Some experiments conclude that cleaners do a much better job when there are other clients around, because the clients observe the work quality of the cleaner, and that’s how they decide which cleaner they allow to service them.
The clients can cheat too, it’s obvious, by eating the cleaner, anyway, they are fish also. But client also don’t anyhow cheat, because they need the service. So this familiarity, reputation and mutual relationship amazed me a lot.
The rule not to eat cleaner also apply for carnivore fish, they even open their mouth for the cleaner fish or shrimp to clean, a very risky game for the cleaner, isn’t it? When they fish the cleaning is done, they jerk their body to let the cleaner know it’s time to leave.
Cleaner fish do a much better job when they serve picky or ‘overseas’ customer, which is very real if we associate it with human being. There are so called resident fish who stay on the same reef (therefore they only have access to one saloon) and commuter fish who move, travel and have access to many cleaning station. And amazingly enough, they recognize good service and they will come back if they found one.
When I thought I have read everything amusing, I found this.
It seems that some fish discover this idea that cleaner fish are considered safe from predator, and they want that privileges too, but they can’t do the cleaning to be one. So, what they do is quite nasty, they mimic as cleaner species; the prominent one is this fangblenny I told you about. Not only fish, I was even fooled until now. (Okay, okay, I know what comparison that I made).
Because of their similar physical appearance, fangblenny fool the fish to think that they are cleaner and provide cleaning service. When the fish approach them to be cleaned, they bite the tasty skin of the fish and run to their nest, commonly they stay inside small holes in the coral. They get easy food.
But because of this nasty habit of Fangblenny, the cleaner fish of the same appearance tend to have less clients and get eaten more often than other cleaner species. Huh. Look what my favorite fish has done.
No wonder when I tried to look at this cleaner, they were friendly enough not to run away and twice, they tried to clean my mask and my gloves.
Clean divers? Yes, they do too, I saw pictures about cleaner shrimp working on diver’s teeth and nails, but they don’t like neoprene, material used for wetsuit, except remora, the molester (!)
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When turkey mate they think of swans.
- Johnny Carson
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cat look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
- Winston Churchill
Mankins differs from the animals only by a little-and most people throw that away.
- Confucius
Animals have these advantages over man…they have no theologians to instruct them,…their funeral cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
- Voltaire
