Cleaning stations in coral reefs – matching services to reef-dwelling and pelagic clients?

Cleaning, the removal of parasites and dead tissue from clients, is common in the Sea. Reef-based cleaning stations are visited by many fish clients, some by both resident and visitor pelagic species, while others are visited solely by resident species. Nonetheless, no distinction has ever been made between the potentially different cleaning stations. Here we describe two distinct categories of cleaning stations: Pelagic Cleaning Stations (PCS) and Residential Cleaning Stations (RCS). We suggest that the two station types differ not only in their clientele but also in the characteristics of their cleaning services. We examined the behaviour of the cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus, at six cleaning stations on isolated knolls in Palawan, Philippines – three stations that are routinely visited by pelagic manta rays (i.e., PCS), and three stations that service only resident clients (i.e., RCS). Our results indicate PCS have a higher number of cleaners per station, that also forage at greater distances from the focal point of the station. These distinct patterns may be due to the effectiveness of the cleaning process for both the clients and the cleaners. Our findings may aid in the identification and conservation of shark and manta cleaning stations.Microsoft Excel; RFunding provided by: Prince Albert II of Monaco FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011592Award Number: 2664Funding provided by: Prince Albert II of Monaco FoundationCrossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011592Award Number: 2018All data were acquired via unobtrusive observation in situ. Our observations were focused on the following characteristics: (a) the number of cleaning stations in each compound; (b) the number of cleaner wrasses per station; (c) the number of cleaner wrasses per each size category; and (d) the amount of time spent by the cleaners in the different foraging distance ranges. Processing was carried out in Excel and analyzed in R