Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T07:33:52.988Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rub and move: barracudas (Sphyraena barracuda) use swimming turtles as scraping surfaces in the south-western Atlantic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2009

Alice Grossman ,
Cristina Sazima  and
Ivan Sazima
Alice Grossman
Affiliation:
Projeto Tamar/ICMBio, Alameda Boldró s/no, 53990-000 Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco, Brazil
Cristina Sazima
Affiliation:
Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Ivan Sazima*
Affiliation:
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil (retired and associated as voluntary researcher)
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: I. Sazima, Museu de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

The predaceous fish barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda) is recorded rubbing itself against the carapace of moving hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, off north-eastern Brazil. To scrape against such a rough surface is probably employed by the fish to get rid of external parasites.

Keywords

Sphyraenidaeparasitescomfort behaviourCheloniidaerough surfacesnorth-eastern Brazil
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 2 , January 2009 , e106
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bshary, R. (2003) The cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus is a key organism for reef fish diversity at Ras Mohammed National Park, Egypt. Journal of Animal Ecology 72, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bshary, R., Oliveira, R.F., Oliveira, T.S.F. and Canário, A.V.M. (2007) Do cleaning organisms reduce the stress response of client reef fish? Frontiers in Zoology 4, 21 doi:10.1186/1742-9994-4-21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeLoach, N. (1999) Reef fish behavior: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas. Jacksonville: New World Publications.Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1955) Über Symbiosen, Parasitismus un andere besondere zwischenartliche Beziehungen tropischer Meeresfische. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 12, 203–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grossman, A., Sazima, C., Bellini, C. and Sazima, I. (2006) Cleaning symbiosis between hawksbill turtles and reef fishes off northeastern Brazil. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 5, 284–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grutter, A.S. (2005) Cleaning mutualism in the sea. In Rohde, K. (ed.) Marine parasitology. Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing, pp. 264–278.Google Scholar
Guimarães-Jr, P.R., Sazima, C., Reis, S.F. and Sazima, I. (2007) The nested structure of marine cleaning symbiosis: is it like flowers and bees? Biology Letters 3, 51–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Papastamatiou, Y.P., Meyer, C.G. and Maragos, J.E. (2007) Sharks as cleaners for reef fish. Coral Reefs 26, 277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sazima, C., Grossmann, A., Bellini, C. and Sazima, I. (2004) The moving gardens: reef fishes grazing, cleaning, and following green turtles. Cybium 28, 47–53.Google Scholar
Wicklund, R. (1969) Commensalism between sharks and pelagic fishes. Underwater Naturalist, Bulletin of the American Littoral Society 6, 35–36.Google Scholar