Symbiotic Behavior among Fishes from Temperate Ocean Waters

Abstract

Symbiotic cleaning among Atlantic coastal fishes has been observed under laboratory conditions. The cleaning phenomenon may be commonplace in the natural environment along the Atlantic seaboard. The black sea bass, Centropristes striatus (Linn.), parasitized by the copepod, Lernaeenicus radiatus (Le Sueur), was cleaned by a topminnow, Fundulus heteroclitus (Linn.). The behavior was recorded by cinematography and analyzed