JUST like people, fish kiss and make up. Aquatic detente has been spotted in
cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, which feed on the parasites and
scales of 鈥渃lient鈥� reef fish.
Redouan Bshary from the University of Cambridge and Manuela W眉rth from
the Technical University in Munich studied cleaner fish in the Ras Mohammed
National Park at the southern tip of Sinai, Egypt. They found that the fish
stroke their clients鈥� fins to cement the relationship. If, for example, they鈥檝e
accidentally bitten their client too vigorously while dining, they pet even
more.
They鈥檒l also caress their clients to persuade them not to swim away, visit
other cleaners or turn around and bite back.
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Bshary and W眉rth claim this is the first interspecies 鈥渃uddling鈥�
anyone鈥檚 seen in non-mammals (Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
B, vol 268, p 1495).