The School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2011 Dec 23;7(6):863-5. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0458. Epub 2011 Jul 6.
Cleaning behaviour is considered to be a classical example of mutualism. However, no studies, to our knowledge, have measured the benefits to clients in terms of growth. In the longest experimental study of its kind, over an 8 year period, cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus were consistently removed from seven patch reefs (61-285 m(2)) and left undisturbed on nine control reefs, and the growth and parasite load of the damselfish Pomacentrus moluccensis determined. After 8 years, growth was reduced and parasitic copepod abundance was higher on fish from removal reefs compared with controls, but only in larger individuals. Behavioural observations revealed that P. moluccensis cleaned by L. dimidiatus were 27 per cent larger than nearby conspecifics. The selective cleaning by L. dimidiatus probably explains why only larger P. moluccensis individuals benefited from cleaning. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that cleaners affect the growth rate of client individuals; a greater size for a given age should result in increased fecundity at a given time. The effect of the removal of so few small fish on the size of another fish species is unprecedented on coral reefs.
清洁行为被认为是共生关系的一个典型例子。然而，据我们所知，没有研究以生长为指标来衡量客户（指鱼类）获得的益处。在同类最长的实验研究中，长达 8 年的时间里，我们持续从 7 个珊瑚礁（61-285 平方米）中移除清洁鱼（棘颊雀鲷），而在 9 个对照礁中则让它们不受干扰，然后确定雀鲷（刺尾鱼）的生长和寄生虫负载。8 年后，与对照组相比，移除组的鱼生长速度降低，寄生虫桡足类丰度更高，但只在较大的个体中如此。行为观察表明，被棘颊雀鲷清洁的刺尾鱼比附近的同种鱼大 27%。棘颊雀鲷的选择性清洁可能解释了为什么只有较大的刺尾鱼个体从清洁中受益。这是我们所知的首次证明，清洁鱼会影响客户个体的生长速度；在给定的时间内，更大的体型应该会导致更高的繁殖力。在珊瑚礁上，如此少量的小鱼被移除对另一种鱼类体型的影响是前所未有的。
