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Cleaning station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cleaning station is a location where fish, and other marine life, congregate to be cleaned.
The cleaning process includes the removal of parasites from the animal's body (both externally and internally), and can be performed by various creatures (including cleaner shrimp and numerous species of fish, especially wrasses and gobies).
When the fish approaches a cleaner station they will pose in an 'unnatural' way to show the cleaner fish that they will not eat them, this can be pointing in a strange direction and/or opening the mouth wide. The cleaner fish will then eat the parasites directly from the skin of the cleaned fish. It will even swim into the mouth and gills of the fish to be cleaned.
Cleaning stations are often associated with coral features, located either on top of a coral head or in a slot between two outcroppings.