II0B30N: CLEANING SYMBIOSIS 



a subsequent period of cleaning. Despite these 

 questions, the conclusions drawn in this report 

 are dependent only on an accurate assessment 

 of the immediate situation, so that their validity 

 is not affected by whether or not the habits of 

 individuals under study remain basically un- 

 changed over time. 



A NOTE ON INDIVIDUAL VS. 

 SPECIES HABITS 



Information on variations in feeding behavior 

 among individual fish under natural conditions 

 is difficult to acquire. Typically a given behavior 

 is described as a species characteristic, and the 

 extent to which this behavior varies among the 

 different members of the species is unknown. 

 Observations of cleaning by the senorita dem- 

 onstrate that different individuals in a popula- 

 tion may react differently to a given situation. 

 Unquestionably this phenomenon e.xtends beyond 

 cleaning behavior to other facets of the animal's 

 activity. If, as is probable, some of the charac- 

 teristics of individual fish result from early im- 

 printing, then dift'erent members of the same 

 population could be expected to react differently 

 in certain situations throughout life. In any 

 event, it seems unquestionable that the behavior 

 of an individual is considerably more limited than 

 that descriptive of its species, or even its own 

 population. 



CONCLUSIONS 



1. Three inshore species of fishes in southern 

 California are habitual cleaners: the senorita, 

 the sharpnose seaperch, and the kelp perch. A 

 number of other species clean occasionally as 

 an incidental adjunct to their regular feeding. 



2. The seiiorita may clean throughout its post- 

 larval life, whereas cleaning by the sharpnose 

 seaperch is an activity largely of juveniles. The 

 life-history period during which kelp perch clean 

 has not been defined. 



3. Cleaning is of secondary significance to 

 these species, although it may be of major sig- 

 nificance to certain individuals. Only a few of 

 the many seiioritas present at a given time clean, 



and the same seems to be true of the kelp perch. 

 The incidence of cleaners is much higher among 

 juvenile sharpnose seaperch, but the adults of 

 this species do not seem to clean regularly. The 

 major food of all three species is free-living or- 

 ganisms which they pick from a substrate and 

 midwater. 



4. There is little overlap between the cleaning 

 areas of the three species. The seiiorita is the 

 major cleaner in southern California inshore 

 waters by virtue of its great abundance in a 

 variety of rocky habitats. However, the kelp 

 perch may be the predominant cleaner in the 

 canopy region of the kelp beds, where the spe- 

 cies concentrates, and the sharpnose seaperch 

 is the predominant cleaner where it occurs at 

 depths below about 20 to 30 m and/or water 

 under 12° or 13° C, even though the senorita 

 may be more abundant. 



5. The seiiorita and sharpnose seaperch do not 

 establish well-defined stations at which they re- 

 ceive other fishes seeking to be cleaned — a situ- 

 ation frequently described for other cleaner 

 fishes. Rather, as they move from place to place, 

 individuals of these species approach and clean 

 other fishes in various different locations. 



6. Cleaning activity by these species is essen- 

 tially limited to removing ectoparasites from the 

 external body surfaces of fishes. They do not 

 ordinarily take parasites of the oral and branch- 

 ial cavities. The dentition of the senorita and 

 kelp perch, which is similar and which includes 

 a number of long, curved canines that project 

 forward at the front of each jaw, seems espe- 

 cially suited to pick ectoparasites. 



7. The major prey taken by these fishes 

 through cleaning are caligid copepods and gnath- 

 iid iso]3od larvae. The species of pai-asite taken 

 most often by the seiiorita and sharpnose sea- 

 perch is Caligus hohsoni. 



8. Some species of fishes are cleaned far more 

 often than others, and many species that co- 

 occur with these cleaners are not cleaned at all. 

 The fishes most frequently cleaned are those 

 which at the same time are most abundant and 

 most heavily infested with ectoparasites. The 

 most numerous ectoparasites on these fishes are 

 caligid copepods, the most abundant of which is 

 C. hohsoni. 



521 



