Cleaner Wrasse

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Cleaner Wrasse
Common cleaner fish (Labroides dimidiatus)

Common cleaner fish ( Labroides dimidiatus )

Systematics
Spinefish (Acanthopterygii)
Perch relatives (Percomorphaceae)
Order : Labriformes
Family : Wrasse (Labridae)
Subfamily : Junker Wrasse (Julidinae)
Tribe : Cleaner Wrasse
Scientific name
Labrichthyini
Cleaner wrasse clean the knife wrasse Novaculichthys taeniourus

The cleaner wrasse (Labrichthyini) are a tribe in the family of wrasse (Labridae), which includes five genera and 14 species . (Occasionally other wrasse, e.g. Suezichthys species, also clean . W. Beebe even mentions cleaning of a scarin (sea parrot) by Labrus mixtus .) Cleaner wrasse only live in the tropical Indo-Pacific . In the Caribbean , their ecological niche is occupied by cleaner gobies ( Elacatinus ).

behavior

Cleaner wrasse maintain cleaning stations where a male lives with a harem of three to six females. Other fish come here to be cleaned of parasites and dead skin by the cleaner fish . The drawing of the cleaner fish with the conspicuous longitudinal stripe is a distinguishing feature for other fish.

Cleaner wrasse in the mouth of a manta ray

Even predatory fish are completely peaceful at the cleaning stations, wait for their turn and let the wrasse swim into their mouths and gill cavities so that they can clean them there. With slight movements, the "customers" signal that they have had enough and that the cleaner fish have to leave their body cavities.

While the common cleaner fish ( Labroides dimidiatus ) and its fellow species maintain this diet throughout their lives, the species of the genera Labropsis and Larabicus only clean when they are young and later feed on coral polyps . The nomad cleaner wrasse ( Diproctacanthus xanthurus ) does not have a permanent cleaning station, but moves around and cleans damselfish (Pomacentridae), which have no opportunity to come to the cleaning stations, because they live in small areas of a few square meters and this because of the territorial claims of the neighbors can not leave.

Systematics

Phylogenetically , the cleaner wrasse belong to the Junker wrasse (Julidinae). The genus Labrichthys is the sister group of all other Labrichthyini. Diproctacanthus is the sister species of Labropsis , Larabicus that of the genus Labroides .

 Cleaner Wrasse (Labrichthyini)  
  NN  
  NN  

 Diproctacanthus


   

 Labropsis



  NN  

 Labroides


   

 Larabicus




   

 Labrichthys



species

Hawaiian cleaner fish (
Labroides phthirophagus )

imitation

The false cleaner fish ( Aspidontus taeniatus ) belongs to the saber-toothed slime fish . It imitates the common cleaner fish ( Labroides dimidiatus ) in shape, color and swimming style. If a fish approaches it to be cleaned, it bites off pieces of fins and skin instead.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. MW Westneat, ME Alfaro: Phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the reef fish family Labridae. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. No. 36, 2005, pp. 370-390