Cleaning station

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.[1]

A reef manta ray at a cleaning station, maintaining a near stationary position atop a coral patch for several minutes while being cleaned by cleaner fish.
A rockmover wrasse Novaculichthys taeniourus being cleaned by Hawaiian cleaner wrasses, Labroides phthirophagus on a reef in Hawaii. Some manini and a filefish wait their turn.

The cleaning process includes the removal of parasites from the animal's body (both externally and internally), and is performed by various smaller animals including cleaner shrimp and numerous species of cleaner fish, especially wrasses and gobies (Elacatinus spp.).

When the animal approaches a cleaning station, it will open its mouth wide or position its body in such a way as to signal that it needs to be cleaned. The cleaner fish will then remove and eat the parasites from the skin, even swimming into the mouth and gills of any fish being cleaned. This is a form of cleaning symbiosis.

Cleaning stations may be associated with coral reefs, located either on top of a coral head or in a slot between two outcroppings. Other cleaning stations may be located under large clumps of floating seaweed or at an accepted point in a river or lagoon.

Some species of combtooth blenny, most notably the false cleanerfish, mimic the appearance and behaviour of cleaners, then tear away scales or flesh when suitably close to the victim.

gollark: I am in earth hemisphere.
gollark: That's what we use [ALL OTHER CHANNELS] for.
gollark: ++exec```haskellimport Unsafe.Coercedata Would = Seriously Int deriving Showtype Mad = ()data Are = Are Mad deriving Showtype Is = Aredata You = You Are Mad deriving Showdata Thing = This Thing Is Mad deriving Showdata This = Thing Mad deriving Shownewtype Do = Do (Thing -> You -> [Thing])data Why = Why Would You Do This deriving Showinstance Show Do where show x = "Do the thing!"why :: Whywhy = Why would you do_ this where would = Seriously 0 you = You (Are ()) () do_ = Do $ \_ _ -> [] this = Thing ()main = print why```
gollark: Very cool.
gollark: ++exec```haskellimport Unsafe.Coercedata Would = Seriously Why Int deriving Showtype Mad = ()data Are = Are Mad deriving Showtype Is = Aredata You = You Are Mad deriving Showdata Thing = This Thing Is Mad deriving Showdata This = Thing Mad deriving Shownewtype Do = Do (Thing -> You -> [Thing])data Why = Why Would You Do This deriving Showinstance Show Do where show x = "Do the thing!"why :: Whywhy = Why would you do_ this where would = unsafeCoerce Why you = You (Are ()) () do_ = Do $ \_ _ -> [] this = Thing ()main = print why```

See also

References
  1. Hroch, Tomas. "Mzima Springs - Haunt of the hippo". eng.hrosi.org. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  • McGregor, Peter K. Animal Communication Networks . Cambridge University Press, p. 525
  • Ryan, Frank (2002). Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0618118128.
  • Hammerstein, Peter (2003). Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262083263.
  • Bauer, Raymond T. (2004). Remarkable Shrimps: Adaptations and Natural History of the Carideans. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806135557.
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