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 quite limited.

For example, it was precisely established that the fish,The people involved in cleaning have a huge impact on many aspects of life in this environment. 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 toa lot of parasites that feed on blood, mucus or the products of their host's life. 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 capabilities, 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, as it has to climb into the jaws and even into the gill slits of the parasites "sick" in the process of processing. The latter, by the way, go themselves 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 makes a fish-cleaner, you can understand,observing how her "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 for their hour.

It is interesting that for this time evensomething like a truce. That is, predatory moray eels can safely be near their potential victims without showing the slightest interest in them.

Which fishes are cleaners

The most common cleaning fish isrepresentative of the family Wrasse (the so-called jaw). "Profession" gubans are obliged to form their mouths, similar to a tube and armed with teeth of a special design, which look like a pair of 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 - incredibly sociable by nature, often work a large flock, 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 has been verified that they can "take" 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.

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

Cleaners, usually operating in pairs, begintreatment from the eyes, gradually moving to the gills, and then sneaking and into the mouth of the "patient". If a fish has 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 when using cleaners

When the "patient" feels that he no longer needsin 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 fish-cleaner can not resisttemptation to eat a piece of nutritious mucus covering the body of the patient (it must be said that this is her favorite treat), and then an 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 other "professions" does the cleaning fish own?

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

But the most surprising is that, according toobservation 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 calmer.

As you can see, you can give several answers to the question about what "professions" the fish-cleaner owns.