Belize: Ambergris Caye to Placencia

©2002 Ken Riddick
Gray angels and cleaner station at White Hole reef

A pair of gray angelfish and schoolmaster take their turns at having annoying parasites picked from their scales by cleaner wrasse. Cleaning stations like this are common along the reef, where the larger fishes sometimes line up for the opportunity.

The larger fish gets rid of parasites while the cleaner fish and shrimp get an easy meal. Often, you can see the larger fish holding perfectly still, mouth agape, as the wrasse and gobies swim into their mouths and out their gill opercula, searching for parasites.

I'm not so great at identifying wrasse but I think that both the yellow ones and the striped ones are different color phases of juvenile bluehead wrasse.


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Pictures from other trips:
Roatan | Little Cayman Island | Galapagos | Grand Turk
French Polynesia | Bonaire | Belize | Saba | Exuma Cays

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