’Antisocial’ damselfish are scaring off cleaner fish customers - and this could contribute to coral reef breakdown

Damselfish have been discovered to disrupt -cleaning services- vital to the health of reefs. And climate change may mean this is only likely to get worse. "We need to step back and see how all fish are connected so that we can protect ecosystems like coral reefs." Dr Katie Dunkley The meal of choice for the Caribbean cleaner fish, the sharknose goby, is a platter of parasites, dead tissue, scales and mucus picked off the bodies of other fishes. By removing these morsels, gobies are offering their -cleaning services- to other marine life - a famous example of a mutually beneficial relationship between species. But new research from the University of Cambridge and Cardiff University shows that when gobies inadvertently set up shop within the territories of aggressive damselfish, damselfish scare off the gobies choosy client customers-. The study, published today in Behavioral Ecology , is an example of a largely unexplored phenomenon: a mutually beneficial relationship in nature being disrupted by a third party. Sharknose gobies work solo or band together and set up a -cleaning station-: a fixed location in a particular nook of coral reef, where other marine life burdened by parasites go to take advantage of the gobies- dietary needs.