Cleaning interactions by gobies on a tropical eastern Pacific coral reef

Journal of Fish Biology
J P Quimbayo, F A Zapata

Abstract

The present study describes the cleaning interactions among species of cleaner gobies Tigrigobius spp. and Elacatinus puncticulatus (family Gobiidae) and the client fish species they clean in a coral reef of Gorgona Island, Colombia. In 419 cleaning events, we observed 27 species acting as clients of Tigrigobius spp., whereas only nine were clients of E. puncticulatus. Paranthias colonus and Cephalopholis panamensis were the species most commonly cleaned by Tigrigobius spp., while Ophioblennius steindachneri and Stegastes acalpulcoensis were the clients most commonly cleaned by E. puncticulatus. The abundance (but not the body size) of clients was an important variable predicting the cleaning frequency observed for clients of Tigrigobius spp., but this was not the case for clients of E. puncticulatus. Additionally, Tigrigobius spp. preferred cleaning planktivores, sessile invertebrate feeders and territorial herbivores (Ivlev's index >0·15), whereas E. puncticulatus did not exhibit any preference. We observed two major peaks of cleaning activity for Tigrigobius spp., one in the early morning and another one in the late afternoon. These results suggest that Tigrigobius spp. is a specialized cleaner goby, whereas E. puncticulatus...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

References

Dec 16, 1998·Animal Behaviour·C Arnal, I M CÂotÉ
Jan 16, 2003·Current Biology : CB·Alexandra S GrutterJ Howard Choat
Dec 23, 2006·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Sergio R FloeterAlexandra S Grutter
Jun 30, 2009·The Journal of Experimental Biology·L LettieriJ T Streelman
Jul 14, 2009·Current Biology : CB·Karen L CheneyN Justin Marshall

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Citations

Dec 27, 2019·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Jonathan M HuieLuke Tornabene

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