dry cleaner , fish and runt species that feed on parasites attached to big fish are some of the strangest features of coral reefs . A series of late studies on the Great Barrier Reef reveal both the grandness of their role to reef ecosystems and the curiousdynamicbetween cleaners and their " clients . "
Cleaner wrasse ( Labroides dimidiatus)mostly consume thegnathiidparasites that otherwise suck the blood of their clients . This can be a subject of lifetime or destruction for the clients . Dr. Alexandra Grutterof the University of Queensland told IFLScience that for pocket-sized fish , a parasite can terminate up “ as large relatively as if a human was hold a blood line sucking computed tomography around on them . ”
Grutter has precede a long - pass sketch where cleaner wrasse are continuously remove from a turn of modest reefs in social club to meditate its long - term impact on reef ecology . The small wrasse are carried on ocean currents in their larval stage , squeeze Grutter ’s squad to hit them from the trial reefs every three months and , as she say , “ more often in summertime ” when most larvae settle .
Previously , Grutter ’s teamfoundthat reefs without wrasse slowly becamedepletedin damselfish over a 12 - year period . Now , they have a potential account for why . First authorDerek Sunshowed in theBiology Letterspaper that damselfish are less probable to settle where cleaners are absent . This is despite the fact that the team did not murder cleaner shrimps , who perform a exchangeable intention , and Grutter enjoin that some non - specialist fish are sleep with to allow for occasional sponge - removal services as well .
Grutter read that the team have not yet established whether the nonstarter to settle is the whole tale , or if some fish eventually become refugee from reefs where they can not get a good clean , despite the hazards of moving elsewhere .
However , as important as cleaner Pisces are , they sometimes nark their clients by bite off the mucus the clients produce , rather than the parasites . InCoral Reefs , Grutter and Dr. Maxi Eckeshave facilitate explain why they do this , even though it displeases their customer so much that they sometimes decide to get their parasites slay elsewhere .
Besides being rich in energy , the mucus contains sunscreen thatprotect the fishfrom getting lesions . ineffectual to produce these chemicals themselves , and get none from the parasites , the cleaner fish obtain them by “ jockey , ” compile mucous secretion rather of parasite . The cleaners appraise the mucus so much that they will gamble their human relationship with guest to get some .
However , this is not the face when there is a waiting line of clients : Grutterhas antecedently shownthat cleaners value their repute , to the extent that they will unremarkably not take mucus over parasites when possible clients are queued up to be serviced , and might see them .
Yet , once again , this is not the full account , according to a paper Grutter co - authored inEthology . She find oneself that clean fish did not always study of the equipment casualty to their reputation that such cheating produced . Further investigation revealed that the Pisces the Fishes that never learned were from modest and poorer reefs . Grutter say the investigating of why this might be the case is still in its infancy , telling IFLScience , “ All we can say is that the content for learning reckon on the environment they come from . ”
Whether the cheat fish are genetically different or a mathematical product of bad upbringing remains unclear . “ It could be that these are the fish that were bring up out of all the good spots , or that something else is give out on that affects their ability to learn , ” Grutter say .
