{{Short description|Location where aquatic life congregate to be cleaned}} [[File:Manta alfredi at a ‘cleaning station’ - journal.pone.0046170.g002B.png|thumb|right|A ''[[reef manta ray]]'' at a cleaning station, maintaining a near stationary position atop a coral patch for several minutes while being cleaned.]] [[File:Cleaning station.JPG|right|thumb|A ''rockmover wrasse'' being cleaned by ''Hawaiian cleaner [[wrasse]]s'' on a reef in Hawaii. Some ''[[Acanthurus triostegus |manini]]'' and a ''filefish'' wait their turn.]]
A '''cleaning station''' is a location where aquatic wildlife congregate to be cleaned by smaller organisms. Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including [[fish]], [[sea turtle]]s and [[hippopotamuses]].<ref name="Hroch 2007">{{cite web|last1=Hroch|first1=Tomas|title=Mzima Springs - Haunt of the hippo|url=http://eng.hrosi.org/?id=34|website=eng.hrosi.org|accessdate=27 July 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112224209/http://eng.hrosi.org/?id=34|archivedate=12 November 2013}}</ref>
The cleaning process includes, but is not limited to, the removal of [[parasite]]s (both externally and internally) and dead skin from the client's body, and is performed by various smaller animals, including [[cleaner shrimp]] and numerous species of [[cleaner fish]], especially [[wrasse]]s and [[goby|gobies]] (''[[Elacatinus]]'' spp.).
When a client approaches a cleaning station, they usually open their mouth wide or position their body in such a way as to signal that they wish to be cleaned. The cleaners then remove and eat parasites, dead skin etc. from their skin, even swimming into the mouth and [[gill]]s of any fish being cleaned. This is a form of [[cleaning symbiosis]].
It has been hypothesized that predator clients recognize cleaners by specific physical traits, such as the pattern of their skin colors;<ref name= "Stummer 2004"> {{cite journal|last1=Stummer|first1=Laura|last2=Weller|first2=Jennifer|last3=Johnson|first3=Magnus|last4=Cote|first4=Isabelle|title=Size and stripes: how fish clients recognize cleaners|journal=Animal Behaviour |year=2004 |volume=68 |pages=145–150 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.10.018 |s2cid=53299983 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347204001058|accessdate=10 October 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref> for example, cleaning ''gobies'' tend to exhibit full-body lateral stripes, unlike their non-cleaning counterparts, who tend to exhibit shorter lateral stripes;<ref name= "Stummer 2004"/> in the case of fish, cleaners also tend to be smaller due to them usually being juveniles.<ref name= "Stummer 2004"/>
Cleaning stations may be associated with [[coral]] reefs, located either on top of a coral head or in a slot between two outcroppings. Other cleaning stations may be located under large clumps of floating seaweed or at an accepted point in a river or lagoon. Cleaning stations are an exhibition of [[Mutualism (biology)|mutualism]].
Cleaner fish also affect cultural diversity around coral reefs, since clients with larger home ranges can access and, thus, choose between, a variety of cleaning stations,<ref name= "Bshary 2003"> {{cite journal|last1=Bshary|first1=Redouan|last2=Schaffer|first2=Daniel|title=Choosy reef fish select cleaner fish that provide high-quality service|journal=Animal Behaviour |year=2002 |volume=63 |issue=3 |pages=557–564 |doi=10.1006/anbe.2001.1923 |s2cid=53152241 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347201919232|accessdate=10 October 2022|url-access=subscription}}</ref> visitor clients sometimes traveling long distances to a particular cleaning station.<ref name= "Grutter 2003"> {{cite journal|last1=Grutter|first1=Alexandra|last2=Murphy|first2=Jan|last3=Choat|first3=J|title=Cleaner Fish Drives Local Fish Diversity on Coral Reefs|journal=Current Biology |year=2003 |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=64–67 |doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(02)01393-3 |pmid=12526747 |s2cid=15670411 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982202013933|accessdate=10 October 2022|doi-access=free}}</ref> On the other hand, cleaning businesses have been damaged by predators disguising as cleaners in order to tear away scales or flesh of a victim.<ref name= "Bshary 2003"/>
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Stenopus hispidus (Banded cleaner shrimp).jpg|''[[Stenopus hispidus]]'' (''banded cleaner shrimp'') on a ''Xestospongia muta'' (''barrel sponge''): The shrimp wait to remove external parasites and dead skin from visiting fish. File:Cleaning station parot.jpg|A ''[[parrotfish]]'' being cleaned by ''Hawaiian cleaner [[wrasse]]s'' (''[[Labroides phthirophagus]]'') (photographed in 2005 in [[Hawaii]]) <!--File:Cleaning station parot2.jpg|A ''parrotfish'' being cleaned by ''Hawaiian cleaner wrasses'' (''[[Labroides phthirophagus|L. phthirophagus]]'') (photographed in 2005 in [[Hawaii]])--> <!--File:Cleaning station kona hawaii 2.jpg|A ''[[needlefish]]'' being cleaned by ''Hawaiian cleaner [[wrasse]]s'' (''[[Labroides phthirophagus]]'')--> File:Needlefish is being cleaned by Labroides phthirophagus.jpg|A ''[[needlefish]]'' being cleaned by ''[[Labroides phthirophagus|L. phthirophagus]]'' File:Cleaner inside gill.JPG|A ''[[Hawaiian cleaner wrasse]]'' inside the gill of a ''[[Tetraodontidae|pufferfish]]'' File:Naso lituratus and Labroides phthirophagus.jpg|An ''[[orangespine unicornfish]]'' being cleaned by a ''Hawaiian cleaner wrasse'' File:Naso lituratus Novaculichthys taeniourus and Labroides phthirophagus.jpg|A ''[[rockmover wrasse]]'' gets cleaned by a ''[[Hawaiian cleaner wrasse]]'' while an ''orangespine unicornfish'' waits their turn File:Mulloidichthys flavolineatus at cleaning station.jpg|A ''[[goatfish]]'' (''[[Mulloidichthys flavolineatus]]'') at [[Kona, Hawaii]], being cleaned by two ''[[Hawaiian cleaner wrasse]]s'' </gallery>
==See also== *[[Cleaner fish]] *[[Cleaning symbiosis]] *[[Doctor fish]] *''[[Lysmata amboinensis]]''
== References == {{reflist}} * {{Cite book | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 9780521823616 | last = McGregor | first = Peter | title = Animal Communication Networks | date = 2005 }} * {{Cite book | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | isbn = 0618118128 | last = Ryan | first = Frank | title = Darwin's Blind Spot: Evolution Beyond Natural Selection | date = 2002 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/darwinsblindspot00fran }} * {{Cite book | publisher = MIT Press | isbn = 978-0262083263 | last = Hammerstein | first = Peter | title = Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation | date = 2003 }} * {{Cite book | publisher = University of Oklahoma Press | isbn = 978-0806135557 | last = Bauer | first = Raymond T. | title = Remarkable Shrimps: Adaptations and Natural History of the Carideans | date = 2004 }}
{{commons category|Cleaning station}} [[Category:Marine biology]]