Post #15082

Truce place in the ocean. Here the most dangerous predators do not harm anyone. All fish undergo spa treatments together! “If you don’t pass the Unified State Exam, you’ll have to go work as a janitor” - this is how every first parent motivates their child on the eve of exams. What a pity that we don’t live at sea, where cleaners are held in high esteem! The cleaner wrasse, for example, being a tiny fry, is not even afraid of sharks. And all because he works in a cleaning station - the safest place in the World Ocean! It doesn’t matter who you are - predator or prey, meat-eater or herbivore. The sea creatures that come here briefly forget their place in the food chain in order to get rid of those who suck blood and turn life into a personal hell - parasites. At cleaning stations they are greeted with joyful dancing by the cleaner wrasses, who are also called doctors. These fish live in the tropical waters of the World Ocean. From the Red Sea to the shores of Fiji, from New Zealand to the Great Barrier Reef, doctor fish set up stations and accept clients for a modest fee in the form of ectoparasites and scraps of dead skin. The leader male runs the “business”; he rules a group of several females, and together they control their section of the reef. Wrasses are small fish, no more than 10 centimeters in length. Their bright blue body is crossed by a black unmasking stripe. But the doctor does not try to hide; on the contrary, the wrasse wants to be as noticeable as possible. Seeing a potential client on the horizon, the cleaners break into a dance, but not with joy in anticipation of payment. This is how they signal the fish about their species and offer services. Predators, herbivores, scavengers - all those who need help stop, open their mouths, allowing the cleaner to hunt for parasites that dig into their skin, throats and gills. Among the clients there are also special people - sharks. They have to be serviced on the move - the gas exchange of toothy predators is directly related to the flow of water through the gill slits. The procedure that the wrasse undergoes is unpleasant, but useful. The fish scrapes off all sorts of nasty things from the most inaccessible places of its patient. To calm the ward while removing the parasite, the wrasse gently “strokes” it with its fins. When the client wants to finish the procedure, he gives a signal: he closes his mouth for a few seconds. Then he opens it, releasing the small assistant into the wild. A cleaning station is a real business. Clients remember the places where they got thoroughly fucked and return there again and again. And the wrasses themselves remember regular guests and clean them especially carefully. Does anyone eat wrasse? Most likely, they are swallowed periodically, if only because fish are reflex creatures. But by the standards of other inhabitants of the sea, cleaners live in conditions of total security. Thanks to the work of little doctors, all sea creature