Clownfish Amphiprion polymnus wound cleaned by Ancylomene sp. cleaner shrimp

Cleaner shrimp cooperate with client fishes in a cleaning symbiosis to remove clients’ ectoparasites (McCammon et al. 2010) and to assist in wound management (Vaughan et al. 2018). These interspecific interactions are generally mutually beneficial. In the recent laboratory study by Vaughan et al. (2018), cleaner shrimp Lysmata amboinensis (de Man, 1888) were shown to reduce inflammation associated with client fish injury. The cleaning of wounds of terrestrial clients by birds is common (Sazima 2011), but rarely have there been observations of wound cleaning in marine organisms (see Foster 1985; Vaughan et al. 2018).