Parasite removal rates by the cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus

Grutter, Alexandra S.

doi:10.3354/meps130061

Cited by 212 publications

(201 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Full-time cleaners will probably turn out to be the ultimate Machiavellian strategists among fish. L. dimidiatus has 1,000-2,300 interactions per day with clients belonging to sometimes over 100 species (Grutter 1996;R. Bshary, unpublished data), and cheating, punishment, and reconciliation occur about 50-200 times a day (R. Bshary, unpublished data).…”

Section: Promising Study Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

Bshary

Wickler²,

Fricke³

2001

Anim.Cogn.

240

166

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We provide selected examples from the fish literature of phenomena found in fish that are currently being examined in discussions of cognitive abilities and evolution of neocortex size in primates. In the context of social intelligence, we looked at living in individualised groups and corresponding social strategies, social learning and tradition, and co-operative hunting. Regarding environmental intelligence, we searched for examples concerning special foraging skills, tool use, cognitive maps, memory, anti-predator behaviour, and the manipulation of the environment. Most phenomena of interest for primatologists are found in fish as well. We therefore conclude that more detailed studies on decision rules and mechanisms are necessary to test for differences between the cognitive abilities of primates and other taxa. Cognitive research can benefit from future fish studies in three ways: first, as fish are highly variable in their ecology, they can be used to determine the specific ecological factors that select for the evolution of specific cognitive abilities. Second, for the same reason they can be used to investigate the link between cognitive abilities and the enlargement of specific brain areas. Third, decision rules used by fish could be used as 'null-hypotheses' for primatologists looking at how monkeys might make their decisions. Finally, we propose a variety of fish species that we think are most promising as study objects.

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Section: Promising Study Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

Bshary

Wickler²,

Fricke³

2001

Anim.Cogn.

240

166

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“…Bluestreak cleaner wrasses remove ectoparasites, and they have been shown to significantly decrease local abundance of gnathiid isopods (Grutter, 1996a;Grutter and Lester, 2002). Thus individuals that are resident on a reef patch with a cleaner wrasse present are most likely to experience a significant reduction in exposure to ectoparasites and thereby in the adverse effects of these parasites.…”

Section: Effect Of Cleaners On Indicators Of Health Of Reef Fishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results of a series of studies in a range of reef fishes have validated that ectoparasite removal by cleaner wrasses plays an important role during cleaner-client interactions (Grutter, 1996a(Grutter, , 1999Bshary and Grutter, 2002b;Grutter and Lester, 2002;Grutter and Bshary, 2003). These results are (i) the presence of parasitic isopods causes clients to visit cleaner wrasses (Hemigymnus melapterus: Grutter, 2001), (ii) cleaner wrasses significantly reduce the ectoparasites load of clients (Pomacentrus vaiuli: Gorlick et al, 1987;H.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Does access to the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus affect indicators of stress and health in resident reef fishes in the Red Sea?

Ros¹,

Lusa²,

Meyer³

et al. 2011

Hormones and Behavior

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Interactions between the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus and its client reef fish are a textbook example of interspecific mutualism. The fact that clients actively visit cleaners and invite inspection, together with evidence that cleaners eat many client ectoparasites per day, indeed strongly suggests a mutualistic relationship. What remains unknown is how parasite removal affects the physiology of clients and thereby their body condition, health, and immune function. Here we addressed these issues in a field study in Ras Mohammed National Park, Egypt. In our study area, small reef patches are inter-spaced with areas of sandy substrate, thereby preventing many species (i.e., residents, including cleaner wrasses) from travelling between the reef patches. This habitat structure leads to a mosaic of resident clients with and without access to bluestreak cleaner wrasses, further referred to as "cleaner access", on which we focused our study. We found that residents with cleaner access had higher body condition than residents without cleaner access. However, indicators of stress like variation in cortisol levels corrected for handling time and various immune parameters were apparently unaffected by cleaner access. In fact antibody responses were significantly higher in fishes without cleaner access. This suggests that cleaner access decreases the need for active immunity and that this releases resources that might be allocated to other functions such as somatic growth and reproduction.

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“…As clients punish non-cooperative (i.e. biting) cleaners by leaving the cleaning station or attacking (punishing) the cleaner (Bshary and Grutter 2002a;Bshary and SchäVer 2002), cleaners adjust their behaviour and feed on the parasites they obtain from clients (Grutter 1996;Bshary and Grutter 2002b). Several laboratory experiments show that cleaners can easily learn to feed against their preference if this allows them to continue with foraging (Bshary and Grutter 2005;Bshary and Grutter 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do cleaner fish learn to feed against their preference in a reverse reward contingency task?

2009

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The ability to control impulsive behaviour has been studied in animals with a standard test in which subjects need to choose the smaller of two food items in order to receive the larger one (reverse reward contingency). As a variety of mammals that have been tested so far (mostly primates) have great diYculties to solve the task, it has been proposed that it is generally cognitively demanding. However, according to an ecological approach to cognition, a species' ability to solve the task should not depend on its general cognitive abilities but on whether its ecology causes selective pressure on the ability to restrain foraging behaviour. We tested this hypothesis using the cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), a Wsh species that feeds against its preference in nature when engaging in cleaning interactions with so called 'client Wsh'. None of the eight tested individuals learned to choose a non-preferred item after 200 trials. In a subsequent test, one subject learned to respond correctly in a large or none contingency task (only the choice of the small food was rewarded). After a short re-experience treatment, this individual learned to solve the reverse reward task after 30 trials. In conclusion, we did not Wnd support for the general idea that interactions with clients prepared cleaners to quickly solve a reverse reward test. However, the results suggest that the potential to solve a reverse reward contingency may not be restricted to mammals but could be present also in a Wsh species in which the problem of choosing a non-preferred food over a preferred one is an ever present challenge in nature.

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Parasite removal rates by the cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus

Cited by 212 publications

References 10 publications

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

Fish cognition: a primate's eye view

Does access to the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus affect indicators of stress and health in resident reef fishes in the Red Sea?

Do cleaner fish learn to feed against their preference in a reverse reward contingency task?

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