CLEANING SYMBIOSIS AMONG CALIFORNIA INSHORE FISHES' 



Edmund S. Hobson'' 



ABSTRACT 



Cleaning symbiosis among shore fishes was studied during 1968 and 1969 in southern California, with 

 work centered at La Jolla. Three species are habitual cleaners: the senorita, Oxyjidis caUfomica; 

 the sharpnose seaperch, Phaixerodon atripes; and the kelp perch, Brachyistius frenatus. 



Because of specific differences in habitat, there is little overlap in the cleaning areas of these three spe- 

 cies. Except for juvenile sharpnose seaperch, cleaning is of secondary significance to these species, even 

 though it may be of major significance to certain individuals. The tendency to clean varies between in- 

 dividuals. Principal prey of most members of these species are free-living organisms picked from a 

 substrate and from midwater — a mode of feeding that favors adaptations suited to cleaning. 



Because it is exceedingly abundant in a variety of habitats, the senorita is the predominant inshore 

 cleaning fish in California. Certain aspects of its cleaning relate to the fact that only a few of the many 

 serioritas present at a given time will clean, and that this activity is not centered around well-defined 

 cleaning stations, as has been reported for certain cleaning fishes elsewhere. Probably because cleaners 

 are difficult to recognize among the many senoritas that do not clean, other fishes generally do not at- 

 tempt to initiate cleaning; rather, the activity is consistently initiated by the cleaner itself. An infest- 

 ed fish approached by a cleaner generally drifts into an unusual attitude that advertises the temporary 

 existence of the transient cleaning station to other fish in need of service, and these converge on the 

 cleaner. Although seiioritas, as a group, clean a number of different fishes, a given individual tends to 

 initiate cleaning with members of just one species. 



The fishes cleaned most often are those which are most abundant and, at the same time, are most 

 heavily infested with external parasites. The most numerous ectoparasites are caligid copepods, the 

 most abundant and widespread of which is Caligus hobsoni. These particular parasites, along with 

 gnathiid isopod larvae, are the major prey of the cleaning fishes. Cleaning is essentially limited to the 

 external body surface; ectoparasites of the oral and branchial cavities are not ordinarily taken. Clean- 

 ing effectively reduces the numbef of parasites on fishes that are cleaned, and is an important activity 

 for the organisms involved. However, there is no basis for the contention that many good fishing grounds 

 in southern California exist because fishes have congregated in these locations for cleaning. 



It has been suggested that many of the better 

 inshore fishing spots are, in fact, cleaning sta- 

 tions (Limbaugh, 1961; Feder, 1966). The 

 contention is that fishes congregate at these lo- 

 cations so that ectoparasites and other deleteri- 

 ous material can be removed from their bodies 

 by resident cleaning organisms. Critics of this 

 hyjwthesis might well suggest instead that clean- 

 ers simply are especially active where fishes are 

 most abundant, or that the cleaners as well as 

 those they clean occur at these locations for 



' Contribution of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. 



" National Marine Fisheries Service, Tiburon Sport 

 Fisheries Marine Laboratory, Tiburon, Calif., and 

 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Cal- 

 ifornia, San Diego, Calif. Mailing address: National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, Fishery-Oceanography Center, 

 P.O. Box 271, La Jolla, Calif. 92037. 



Manuscript accepted March 1971. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69, NO. 3, 1971. 



reasons that have nothing to do with cleaning. 

 Regardless of which view is correct in a given 

 situation, one having witnessed fishes crowded 

 around a cleaner, vigorously soliciting its ser- 

 vices, can only conclude that this activity is in- 

 deed important to the organisms involved. 



Cleaning symbiosis has been widely described 

 in the literature (Longley and Hildebrand, 1941; 

 Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1955; Limbaugh, 1955, 1961; 

 Randall, 1958, 1962; and others) and was re- 

 viewed by Feder (1966). Youngbluth (1968) 

 studied activity of the Hawaiian cleaning labrid 

 Labroides phthirophagus in some detail, and 

 Losey (1971) analyzed the communicative sig- 

 nals between this same species and the fishes that 

 it cleans. But most other reports on cleaning 

 have been simple treatments based largely on 



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