Scaling patterns inform ontogenetic transitions away from cleaning in Thalassoma wrasses

Abstract

Abstract In fishes, cleaning is a mutualistic behavior wherein a species will remove and consume ectoparasites from other organisms. More than two thirds of cleaner fishes display this behavior predominately as juveniles and discontinue cleaning as adults; such species are here referred to as "facultative cleaners". Whether allometric changes in morphological traits coincide with ontogenetic shifts away from cleaning is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that transitions away from cleaning are associated with scaling patterns in the feeding apparatus of facultative cleaners, and then compared such patterns to those exhibited by non-cleaner congeners. We measured functional traits related to feeding, such as vertical gape distance, premaxillary protrusion distance, and maxillary kinematic transmission coefficient (KT) in each ontogenetic series of 11 Thalassoma wrasses (Labridae). As these fishes predominately capture prey via biting, we modeled bite force using MandibLever (v3.3) to create an ontogenetic trajectory of bite force for each species. Our results indicate that cleaner fishes in Thalassoma, as juveniles, possess jaws with low mobility that exhibit weaker bite forces. Additionally, there was remarkable consistency in the range of body lengths over which we observed significant differences between facultative cleaners and non-cleaners in bite force, vertical gape distance, and premaxillary protrusion distance. Through ontogeny, facultative cleaner fishes exhibit positive allometry for a number of functionally important feeding traits, which possibly obviates the need to continue cleaning.