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Publication
Does access to the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus affect indicators of stress and health in resident reef fishes in the Red Sea?
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Interactions between the bluestreak cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus and its client reef fish are a textbook
example of interspecific mutualism. The fact that clients actively visit cleaners and invite inspection, together
with evidence that cleaners eat many client ectoparasites per day, indeed strongly suggests a mutualistic
relationship. What remains unknown is how parasite removal affects the physiology of clients and thereby
their body condition, health, and immune function. Here we addressed these issues in a field study in Ras
Mohammed National Park, Egypt. In our study area, small reef patches are inter-spaced with areas of sandy
substrate, thereby preventing many species (i.e., residents, including cleaner wrasses) from travelling
between the reef patches. This habitat structure leads to a mosaic of resident clients with and without access
to bluestreak cleaner wrasses, further referred to as “cleaner access”, on which we focused our study. We
found that residents with cleaner access had higher body condition than residents without cleaner access.
However, indicators of stress like variation in cortisol levels corrected for handling time and various immune
parameters were apparently unaffected by cleaner access. In fact antibody responses were significantly higher
in fishes without cleaner access. This suggests that cleaner access decreases the need for active immunity
and that this releases resources that might be allocated to other functions such as somatic growth and
reproduction.
Description
Keywords
Coral reef fish Cleaning symbiosis Mutualism Cortisol Immunocompetence KLH-DNP Leukocytes Body condition Trade-off
Citation
Hormones and Behavior, 59, 151-158