#cleaner fish

Small ‘cleaner’ fish remove dead, damaged skin and parasites from the bodies of reef manta rays.

Gibson: The pipefish looks inherently really silly. It specializes in cleaning from small fish. They tend to work in pairs and, like their seahorse cousins, the males carry the eggs in a brood pouch. I had thought about putting him down as some kind of shrimp at first, but the last fact really captured me.

Armitage is a sharknose goby! These obligate cleaners can pick their way through a squadron of clients- sometimes more than a hundred daily. They have evolved their unique stripes so that other fish knows not to eat them and to allow themselves to be nibbled at instead... though if they're real hungry, they might cheat the client and eat some of their scales and mucus too.

Thomas Jopson: A wrasse, specifically a 4-line wrasse! Various wrasses have served in cleaning stations, but this one just feels the most Joppy in appearance. It's cousin, the bluestreak cleaner, also might've passed the mirror test somehow??? There's a lot of brain in these little guys. Don't question my Jophoto btw

John Bridgens is the lumpfish/lumpsucker! Specifically the Cyclopterus lumpus. They're quite large (for cleaning fish anyhow) and have been harnessed by commercial fisheries to clean lice off of salmon. They also produce roe that is often sold as a caviar alternative.

*Finding Nemo Series #9*

Royal Gramma: Their natural range covers the Bahamas, Venezuela, Antilles, Bermuda, and through the waters surrounding Central America and the northern part of South America. They are also cleaner fish. They remove the ectoparasites from other fish and learns to eat dead food, such as crustaceans and fish flesh.

Cleaner fish are just so cool. They are friends with pretty much everyone in the ocean, even sharks will come up and get their teeth cleaned by them! Is this redesign of Venus De Milo just an excuse for me to draw more aquatic wildlife? I mean, I'm not complaining it comes with that perk! Bonus panels for a dumb idea that made me laugh:

day 12 of Mermay 2023 - Companion 

CLEANED!!!

REBLOG TO TOTALLY

CLEAN