FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 69. NO. 3 



lowed one individual for 10 min after having 

 seen it clean another seiiorita. After this ini- 

 tial activity, the individual under surveillance 

 swam over a wide area, showing interest only 

 in other senoritas, even though blacksmiths, top- 

 smelt, and other species were present. Swim- 

 ming alone, 2 or 3 m over the rocks, it would 

 assume a position alongside another seiiorita and 

 follow it for a short distance. Usually these 

 other fish showed no interest, but some stopped 

 swimming and erected their fins, whereupon the 

 cleaner picked at their bodies — usually once, but 

 occasionally several times. Between cleaning 

 encounters this seiiorita passed through a school 

 of very small (< 40 mm) blacksmiths, several 

 of which hovered head-down in its path; how- 

 ever, the cleaner showed no interest in these fish. 

 On two occasions it picked at a piece of drifting 

 debris. 



Senorita-kelpfish interactions. — At least one 

 species regularly initiates cleaning bouts with 

 senoritas. Earlier (Hobson, 1965a) I reported 

 observing a kelpfish, Heterostichus rostratus, 

 repeatedly soliciting cleaning from unresponsive 

 senoritas. The kelpfish was concealed among 

 benthic algae, which is the typical habitat of this 

 fish. But each time a seiiorita approached in 

 the water overhead, the kelpfish rose up into 

 the senorita's path, where it hovered motionless, 

 fins erect (Figure 5) . A succession of senoritas 



Figure 5. — Kelpfish hovering in midwater, fins erect, 

 to solicit cleaning from a passing seiiorita. 



passed by without responding to the kelpfish, and 

 each time the kelpfish returned to the cover be- 

 low, where it waited until the next approach. 

 Finally a passing seiiorita paused briefly and 

 picked at the kelpfish's side before continuing on 

 its way. After this brief encounter, the kelp- 

 fish did not rise from concealment again even 

 though several more seiioritas subsequently 

 passed overhead. 



During the present study this sequence of 

 events involving kelpfish and senoritas was wit- 

 nessed several times at a variety of locations; 

 indeed, every instance of a kelpfish being cleaned 

 followed this pattern — obviously it is a regular 

 pattern in the behavior of the species. 



Other interactions — Observations are too few 

 to recognize distinctive aspects in cleaning in- 

 teractions involving the many other species that 

 occasionally are cleaned by seiioritas. Usually 

 such activity is noted simply as occasional sight- 

 ings of small clusters of fish, or individual fish, 

 hovering before a seiiorita. In all such en- 

 counters, however, only the external body surface 

 was cleaned. 



Notes follow regarding two other species that 

 are cleaned by senoritas. 



A single sehorita was observed cleaning a pile 

 perch, after which its activity was noted for 

 15 min. Pile perch are not abundant where these 

 observations were made, and after leaving the 

 first individual, the seiiorita swam alone in mid- 

 water for 14 min. It moved over a wide semi- 

 circular course during this time and showed no 

 interest in any of the many fish that it passed, 

 although none were pile perch. It did pick at 

 three small items drifting in midwater. After 

 14 min it made an abrupt course change and, 

 with slightly accelerated swimming, went di- 

 rectly to a solitary pile perch that was in mid- 

 water about 10 m away. The seiiorita swam 

 about the pile perch, which now hovered head- 

 down, but after a close inspection lasting about 

 10 sec it moved on without picking at the pile 

 perch's body. 



Many of the fishes cleaned by seiioritas occa- 

 sionally start, as if nipped too vigorously. Some- 

 times such fish dart away, thus terminating the 

 cleaning. Other times they actively turn on the 



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