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Degrees of honesty: cleaning by the redlip cleaner wrasse Labroides rubrolabiatus

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Abstract

Cleaning symbioses among coral reef fishes are highly variable. Cleanerfishes vary in how much they cooperate with (i.e. remove only ectoparasites) or cheat (i.e. bite healthy tissue, scales or mucus) on their fish clients. As a result, clients use various strategies to enforce cooperation by cleaners (e.g. punishment or partner choice), and cleaners use tactile stimulation to manipulate cheated client behaviour. We provide the first detailed observations of cleaning behaviour of the redlip cleaner wrasse Labroides rubrolabiatus and ask where interactions with this cleanerfish lie on the continuum of cleanerfish honesty, client control, and cleanerfish manipulation. Ninety per cent of redlip cleaner wrasses took jolt-inducing cheating bites from their clients, but they did so at a very low rate (~ 2 jolts per 100 s inspection). Retaliatory chases by clients were uncommon. Three-quarters (30 of 40) of cleaner wrasses used tactile stimulation on their clients, but rarely did so to reconcile with cheated clients. Instead, the majority (70%) of tactile stimulation events targeted a passing client that then stopped for inspection. The relationship between redlip cleaner wrasses and their clients appears to be less conflictual than those documented in other Labroides cleanerfishes. Future studies should test whether this low level of conflict is consistent across space and time and is underpinned by a preference for ectoparasites over other client-gleaned items. As an active cleaner that appears to take few cheating bites from their clients, L. rubrolabiatus has the potential to be as important a driver of fish health and community structure on coral reefs as its better-known relatives.

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Data availability

Species accumulation data and code https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12809948. Other raw data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12809864.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ricardo Beldade for help in the field, Luiz Rocha and Frédéric Zuberer for permission to use his photographs, and Redouan Bshary and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the MS. IMC was supported by a Discovery grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada. SCM was supported by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR-11-JSV7-012-01/Live and Let Die) of France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth to Ocean Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    Isabelle M. Côté

  2. EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, USR-3278, CRIOBE, PSL Université Paris, BP 1013, 98729, Papetoai, Mo’orea, French Polynesia

    Suzanne C. Mills

  3. Laboratoire d’Excellence ‘CORAIL’ https://www.labex-corail.fr

    Suzanne C. Mills

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  1. Isabelle M. Côté
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Correspondence to Isabelle M. Côté.

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This study was carried out in strict accordance with the guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care in Science. The protocol was approved by the Animal Care Committee of Simon Fraser University.

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Côté, I.M., Mills, S.C. Degrees of honesty: cleaning by the redlip cleaner wrasse Labroides rubrolabiatus. Coral Reefs 39, 1693–1701 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01996-6

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