Photos by Nanci Blog

This Nassau Grouper was seen at a cleaning station at Mixing Bowl, Bloody Bay Marine Park, Little Cayman, BWI. You can see the cleaner shrimps near its eye and around its mouth. There is also a small fish (gobie) cleaning its "nose" area. What's a cleaning station? It's a bit like going to the dentist or spa. A fish pulls up and settles in and the cleaner fish get to work. Cleaner fish are fish that show a specialist feeding strategy by providing a service to other species, referred to as clients, by removing dead skin, ectoparasites, and infected tissue from the surface or gill chambers.  This example of cleaning symbiosis represents mutualism and cooperation behaviour, an ecological interaction that benefits both parties involved.   A wide variety of fish including wrasse, cichlids, catfish, pipefish, lumpsuckers, and gobies display cleaning behaviors across the globe in fresh, brackish, and marine waters but specifically concentrated in the tropic...