Species introCountry intro
Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse
Dauin, Oct 2012.
To 11.5 cm (4 1/2 in.). White to yellowish head and forebody. It becomes bluish toward tail. Stripe from snout becomes progressively wider toward tail. Solitary or in pairs. It stablish cleaning stations, swim with jerky motions to attract clients. All cleaner wrasses start their lives as females. In a group of 6–8 cleaner wrasses there is only one male, the rest are females or juveniles. The strongest female changes its sex when the male dies, an occurrence known as sequential hermaphroditism.
Habitat:
Indo Pacific coral reefs in 2-40 m.
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse, "Labroides dimidiatus", is one of several species of cleaner wrasses found on coral reefs from Eastern Africa and the Red Sea to French Polynesia. Like other cleaner wrasses, it eats parasites and dead tissue off larger fishes' skin in a mutualistic relationship that provides food and protection for the wrasse, and considerable health benefits for the other fishes.
