Cleaner Wrasse

[Originally posted to the Moorea Coral Reef LTER (MCR LTER) Marine Life Encyclopedia]

Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse - ‘Atoti
(Labroides dimidiatus)

Photo by Gerick Bergsma. Text by Tom Adam.

The Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse occupies territories (often referred to as “cleaner stations”) where it is visited by a wide variety of different “client” fishes which solicit the cleaner’s services.

	Indo-Pacific: Red Sea and East Africa to the Line, Marquesan and Ducie islands. North to southern Japan, south to Australia and Rapa.
	Coral reefs 1 to 40 meters deep.
	Feed on external parasites removed from other fishes (primarily parasitic gnathiid isopods).
	Cleaners avoid becoming lunch for larger piscivorous fish (fish which commonly eat other fish), despite the tendency of cleaners to enter the mouths of some fish while cleaning them.
	- Fish Base - Tom Adam's PhD Research - Moorea Biocode Database