Question: How does the cleaner wrasse work?

Rebecca Jones answered on 23 Jun 2015:

Cleaner wrasse are the fish cleaners of the ocean. They advertise their cleaning services by being bright in colour and having a bright blue stripe along their side. Cleaner wrasse have cleaning stations which other fish and sometimes even sharks! visit in order to be cleaned. This interaction between the cleaner wrasse and the fish is called a mutualism as the cleaner wrasse is gaining a meal (dead skin cells and parasites) and the fish is losing parasites which may be sucking its blood! However, some fish at these cleaning stations have copied the colours of the cleaner wrasse so appear very similar. These fish are naughty as rather than taking dead skin cells they actually takes bites out of the fish being cleaned! The fish that visit these cleaning sites therefore need to keep an eye on the cleaner fish!