Coral reef mutualisms involve complex trophic ecological relationships that produce indirect effects. Excluding mutualistic cleaner fish Labroides dimidiatus from reefs indirectly increases the abundance of many fishes and reduces demersal stages of their ectoparasitic prey (gnathiid isopods). Whether cleaners affect populations of planktivorous fishes that consume demersal zooplankton, and consequently indirectly affect the r...

Aim Several drivers explain the global distribution of all reef fish. However, whether these drivers also explain the distribution and traits of a functional subgroup involving cleaner fishes remain unclear. Here we examine the variation in traits of cleaner fishes and test whether historical, environmental, ecological and geographical drivers are correlated with cleaner species richness and abundance at global reefs. Location...

Aim We studied the underlying biotic and abiotic drivers of network patterns in marine cleaning mutualisms (species feeding upon ectoparasites and injured tissues of others) at large spatial scales. Location Eleven marine biogeographical provinces. Time period 1971–2018. Major taxa studied Reef fish and shrimps. Methods We combined field and literature data to test whether recurrent patterns in mutualistic networks (nestedness...

Supply and demand largely determine the price of goods on human markets. It has been proposed that in animals, similar forces influence the payoff distribution between trading partners in sexual selection, intraspecific cooperation and interspecific mutualism. Here we present the first experimental evidence supporting biological market theory in a study on cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus . Cleaners interact with two classes...