Exploring Marine Ecosystems and Native Plants: Insights from Coral Reefs to Backyard Gardens
Late January I wrote a post about cleaning stations and recently, at MOTE I got to see some cleaning behavior close up. It is utterly amazing to see these two species work together so well. The small blue fish is a Caribbean neon goby more commonly called a cleaner goby because of its cleaning behavior.… Continue reading Symbiotic Cleaning Relationships
No fish coloring book could be complete without a substantial section on the Wrasse family. These fish are common, plentiful, often brightly colored, and ecologically significant - an all around win for snorkeling and coloring! I've included the most common wrasses - Yellow and Blue headed Wrasses and Hogshead Wrasse - as well as the rarer but fantastically colored Puddingwife wrasse.
This is an Initial Phase Queen Parrotfish being cleaned (most likely) by juvenile bluehead wrasse and are the best photos we've ever gotten of cleaner fish in action. I learned about this amazing occurrence from a fishinar presentation "Cleaning Stations" given by Ned Deloach (co-author of everyone's favorite fish ID books) that I really began to understand the importance of cleaning stations and the amazing relationships that play out there.
Erica Lauer Vose 