A cleaning station is a location where aquatic life congregate to be cleaned by smaller beings. Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...

s and

hippo The hippopotamus (''Hippopotamus amphibius;'' ; : hippopotamuses), often shortened to hippo (: hippos), further qualified as the common hippopotamus, Nile hippopotamus and river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic Mammal, mammal native to su ...

s. The cleaning process includes, but is not limited to, the removal of

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s (both externally and internally) and dead skin from the client's body, and is performed by various smaller animals, including

cleaner shrimp Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming Decapoda, decapod crustaceans that clean other organisms of parasites. Most are found in the family (biology), families Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboi ...

and numerous species of cleaner fish, especially

wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine ray-finned fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, ...

s and

gobies Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and the fam ...

('' Elacatinus'' spp.). When a client approaches a cleaning station, they usually open their mouth wide or position their body in such a way as to signal that they wish to be cleaned. The cleaners then remove and eat parasites, dead skin etc. from their skin, even swimming into the mouth and

gill A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow r ...

s of any fish being cleaned. This is a form of

cleaning symbiosis Cleaning is the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment. Cleaning is often performed for beauty, aesthetic, hygiene, hygienic, Function (engineering), function ...

. It has been hypothesized that predator clients recognize cleaners by specific physical traits, such as the pattern of their skin colors; for example, cleaning ''gobies'' tend to exhibit full-body lateral stripes, unlike their non-cleaning counterparts, who tend to exhibit shorter lateral stripes; in the case of fish, cleaners also tend to be smaller due to them usually being juveniles. Cleaning stations may be associated with

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important 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. Cleaning stations are an exhibition of mutualism. Cleaner fish also, obviously, affect cultural diversity around coral reefs, since clients with larger home ranges can access and, thus, choose between, a variety of cleaning stations, visitor clients sometimes traveling long distances to a particular cleaning station. On the other hand, cleaning businesses have been damaged by predators disguising as cleaners in order to tear away scales or flesh of a victim.

Gallery

File:Stenopus hispidus (Banded cleaner shrimp).jpg, '' Stenopus hispidus'' (''banded cleaner shrimp'') on a ''Xestospongia muta'' (''barrel sponge''): The shrimp wait to remove external parasites and dead skin from visiting fish. File:Cleaning station parot.jpg, A '' parrotfish'' being cleaned by ''Hawaiian cleaner

s'' ('' Labroides phthirophagus'') (photographed in 2005 in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

) File:Needlefish is being cleaned by Labroides phthirophagus.jpg, A ''

needlefish Needlefish (family Belonidae) or long toms are piscivorous fishes primarily associated with very shallow marine habitats or the surface of the open sea. Some genera include species found in marine, brackish, and freshwater environments (e.g., ...

'' being cleaned by '' L. phthirophagus'' File:Cleaner inside gill.JPG, A '' Hawaiian cleaner wrasse'' inside the gill of a '' pufferfish'' File:Naso lituratus and Labroides phthirophagus.jpg, An '' orangespine unicornfish'' being cleaned by a ''Hawaiian cleaner wrasse'' File:Naso lituratus Novaculichthys taeniourus and Labroides phthirophagus.jpg, A '' rockmover wrasse'' gets cleaned by a '' Hawaiian cleaner wrasse'' while an ''orangespine unicornfish'' waits their turn File:Mulloidichthys flavolineatus at cleaning station.jpg, A ''

goatfish The goatfishes are ray-finned fish of the family Mullidae, the only family in the suborder Mulloidei of the order Syngnathiformes. The family is also sometimes referred to as the red mullets, which also refers more narrowly to the genus '' Mul ...

'' ('' Mulloidichthys flavolineatus'') at Kona, Hawaii, being cleaned by two '' Hawaiian cleaner wrasses''

References

* * * * {{commons category, Cleaning station Marine biology

Gallery

See also

References