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.
Ov
OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
Se
Sequential hermaphroditismNo
Not a migrantAnimals that do not make seasonal movements and stay in their native home ranges all year round are called not migrants or residents.
B
starts withThis is a small wrasse, averaging 10 cm long (14 cm max). It can be recognized thanks to a wide longitudinal black stripe running along the side and eye; the back and the stomach are white (sometimes slightly yellowish). This white part changes to a bright blue on the front of the animal, while the black band widens at the tail. The young are black with an electric blue line.
A genetic analysis of L. dimidiatus revealed the population fell into two monophyletic clades, with Indian Ocean populations generally having different stripe widths to western Pacific fishes. The Japanese cleaner wrasses, though, fell within the same group as Indian Ocean fish, despite differing in appearance, and both clades overlap around Papua New Guinea. Two closely related cleaner wrasse species, Labroides pectoralis and Labroides bicolor, were grouped inside the L. dimidiatus clade, so the bluestreak cleaner wrasse may in fact be polyphyletic, incorporating several species.
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is found on coral reefs in the tropics from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to the western Pacific (including Papua New Guinea, Japan, Fiji, and French Polynesia). It was first recorded from the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve north of New Zealand in 2015, after researchers examined hundreds of hours of unused documentary film footage.
