How it looks and what "professions" the cleaning fish owns

Coral reefs of the Red Sea, Indian and Pacific Oceans are a surprisingly diverse world, but our understanding of the processes that affect it is still rather limited.

For example, it was exactly possible to establish that the fish that are engaged in cleaning have a huge impact on many aspects of life in this habitat. In addition, they are a vivid example of a mutually beneficial symbiosis. And what you are and what "professions" the cleaning fish owns, you will learn further.

What the cleaner does

The body of any fish eventually becomes home to a multitude of parasites that feed on blood, mucus or the products of their host's vital activity. The land animals are known to suffer the same problems, but they have paws, teeth, noses and claws, which they can help themselves or fellow men in the pack. And fish do not have such opportunities, and here to help them comes the "marine doctor" - a small fish-cleaner.

It has small dimensions (not more than 14 cm). And this is justifiable, since in the process of processing it is necessary to climb into the jaws and even into the gill slits of the "patients" exhausted by the parasites. The latter, by the way, themselves go to search for "doctors" and find blue-yellow fish in open coral reefs, where the cleaners arrange something like an ambulance.

How does the cleaning cabinet work?

What a cleaning fish does can be understood by observing how its "office" works. In reefs, it is often possible to find out the queues from different species of marine life, patiently waiting for the opportunity to get such help they need. Sometimes, of course, as in human polyclinics, there may be quarrels for the right to be cleaned first, but, in the main, the fish are waiting in the chinnest of their time.

It is interesting that at this time even a sort of truce is declared. That is, predatory moray eels can safely be near their potential victims without showing the slightest interest in them.

Which fish are cleaners

The most common cleaning fish is a representative of the Wrasse family (the so-called jaw). "Profession" of the bay is due to the shape of their mouths, similar to the tube and armed with teeth of a special design, which look like tweezers, which allows them to explore every centimeter of the patient's body as efficiently as possible.

Two species of fish from this family: Thalassoma lunare and Thalassoma amblycephalum are incredibly sociable by nature, often working as a large school, like a swarm of bees. They surround, for example, a huge, lazily floating ramp above them and rejoice at this meeting no less than he. After all, there is a mutually beneficial cooperation: the skate turns into a huge dining table for fish, receiving, in turn, a clean body and, accordingly, health.

Medical "professions" of the fish-cleaner

Cleaners are absolutely insatiable. It is checked that they can "take in" about 300 fish per day, diligently collecting their unwanted tenants. Do not forget about the remains of food between the teeth of huge brethren. In addition, they eat algae, growing on large bodies of warm water fish, clean the wounds, collecting dead skin, bacteria and fungi.

Pisces that have come "to the reception" calmly open the mouth, relax the gill slits and patiently, and sometimes even with obvious pleasure they wait for the end of the process.

Cleaners, usually working in pairs, begin treatment from the eyes, gradually moving to the gills, and then sneaking and into the mouth of the "patient". If the fish have a wound, it will often sail, in order for the cleaners to treat it. In warm waters, this is especially true, since parasites develop there at great speed. That is, as you already probably understand, both the "surgeon" and the "dentist" are all "professions" of the fish-cleaner.

How fish behave, using the services of cleaners

When the "patient" feels that he no longer needs help, he can give a signal to the cleaner, closing his mouth for a while. But do not be afraid, he will not eat his "doctor", just so he says that he is in a hurry.

But sometimes the cleaning fish can not resist the temptation to eat a piece of nutritious mucus covering the patient's body (it must be said that this is her favorite treat), and then the indignant "client" shakes off the incompetent "doctor" and swims away. But, mind you, while not trying to swallow it in the edification of the rest of the "medical" brethren.

Why a pair of cleaners is better than one fish

Researchers from the University of Stockholm, figuring out what "professions" the cleaning fish owns, found interesting facts. It turns out that bite off mucus more often fish, working alone. If the couple works, and the best is the male and female, then similar excesses are not observed. Why?

As it turned out, the cleaners follow each other. And if the male (he is usually larger in size) discovers that the female has violated the rule, he pursues it to punish. Like this! But females, thanks to this, work much better, and "customers" are more willing to go to such mixed pairs of underwater "doctors".

And what "professions" does the cleaning fish own?

As scientists have shown, removing the parasites, the cleaner has a direct effect on the growth of a population of certain inhabitants of coral reefs. Where the reefs were artificially released from this species of fish, the number of others has decreased noticeably. So the cleaner is a kind of keeper of the number and variety of fish species.

But the most surprising is that, according to the observation of researchers, he is also a peacemaker. In reefs, where the cleaners live, the aggressiveness of predators decreases. Even in aquariums, where these fish were kept, carnivores behaved much more calmly.

As you can see, it is possible to give several answers to the question about what "professions" the swimmer-fish owns.