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THE INFLUENCE OF Bicolor DAMSELFISH TERRITORIALITY ON REEF FISH VISITATION TO NEON GOBY CLEANING STATIONS Cem Geray, Jordan Britt, Randi Sims, Tokea Payton, Michael Childress

Neon Gobies

Elactinus oceanops

  • Distinctive with their neon streak, neon gobies are found throughout the reefs of the Florida Keys and help maintain the health of local fish populations
  • Neon gobies rest on coral heads, known as goby cleaning stations, and consume ectoparasites that are found on visiting fish, regardless of body size (Arnal et al. 2001)
  • Ectoparasites reduce their hosts' swimming performance through friction drag, leading to fish expending more energy performing basic activities such as foraging or hunting (Binning et al. 2013)
All kinds of fish utilize the cleaning service neon gobies offer. From parrotfish ...

To even moray eels and nurse sharks!

Bicolor Damselfish

Stegastes partitus

  • Known for being extremely territorial and aggressive to any intruders, bicolor damselfish and several other damselfish species can be found throughout the reefs of the Florida Keys (Arnal and Côté, 1998)
  • Most damselfish species defend their territory mostly from herbivorous fish due to damselfish exhibiting algae farming behavior on their territory (Hata and Kato, 2006)
  • The bicolor damselfish also defends against carnivorous fish that can prey on bicolor eggs within their breeding territory and are thus more indiscriminate on what fish species they will attack and why they were chosen for this study

The Research Question:

HOW ARE REEF FISH VISITATION RATES OF NEON GOBY CLEANING STATIONS AFFECTED WHEN CLEANING STATIONS ARE WITHIN OR ADJACENT TO BICOLOR DAMSELFISH TERRITORY?

Stationed in Long Key in the Florida Keys, the research data was recorded at various offshore reefs over the summer.
Working out of a Clemson Marine Research boat, SCUBA equipment was utilized to carry out the research for the project.

Materials and Methods

A 10 minute focal observation of the damselfish was conducted to map out the bicolor's territory, using flag markers to denote the territory boundaries. A transect was used to measure the size of the territory, placing a weighted end in the middle of the flags and recording the length as well as angle.

A GoPro camera was used to take pictures of each side of the coral head with a ruler placed against the coral as reference for computing software Image J to estimate the the size of the coral.

Two GoPro cameras and one 360 camera were placed to record the cleaning station for 30 minutes while divers were away to avoid any interference with the interactions among the cleaning station.

Results

Figure 1. Difference in client visitations between cleaning stations with and without bicolor damselfish.
Figure 2. Difference in total visitations between cleaning stations with and without bicolor damselfish.
Figure 3. Difference in species richness between cleaning stations with and without bicolor damselfish.

Summary

  • Number of clients and species richness were all significantly lower at cleaning stations with bicolor damselfish, with total visitations not being significantly different (p = 0.0507)
  • Visitations separated by 3 groups, clients, grunts, and wrasses
  • Findings similar to a study carried out by Céline Arnal and Isabelle Côté in 1998, discovering that cleaning stations within dusky damselfish territory had fewer visitors than those not within territory (Arnal and Côté, 1998)
  • For the future, more stations are planned to be analyzed to achieve a matched pairs design
Dusky Damselfish Left; Bicolor Damselfish Right

References

Arnal, C., & Côté, I. M. (1998). Interactions between cleaning gobies and territorial damselfish on coral reefs. Animal Behaviour, 55(6), 1429–1442. https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1998.0727

Arnal, C., Côté, I. M., & Morand, S. (2001). Why clean and be cleaned? The importance of client ectoparasites and mucus in a marine cleaning symbiosis. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 51(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002650100407

Binning, S., Roche, D., & Layton, C. (2013). Ectoparasites increase swimming costs in a coral reef fish. Biology Letters, 9(1). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0927

Hata, H., & Kato, M. (2006). A novel obligate cultivation mutualism between damselfish and polysiphonia algae. Biology Letters, 2(4), 593–596. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0528

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the Clemson Conservation of Marine Resources team for assisting data collection. Special thanks as well to the Clemson University Creative Inquiry Program, the Something Very Fishy Program, the South Carolina Sea Grant, the South Carolina Arts Commission, Slocum-Lunz, and the International Woman's Fishing Association for funding.

Appreciate