📸 PhotoPhoto: Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Bluestreak cleaner wrasse
Labroides dimidiatus (Bluestreak cleaner wrasse · ホンソメワケベラ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum length of 14 cm is about 1.6 times the long side of a credit card (8.56 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 By eating parasites and diseased tissue from larger fish, it increases the survival rate of economically important fish (Animal Diversity Web).
- 💡 In Korea, it is observed along the coast of Jeju Island (National List of Species of Korea).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is a small wrasse that cleans the bodies and gills of other fish on coral reefs. In Korea, it is observed along the coast of Jeju Island.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its body is slender, elongated, and laterally compressed, with a broad black band running from the tip of the snout to the tail. Its small mouth has thick lips and two forward-curved canine teeth.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It sets up cleaning stations where it removes parasites and dead tissue from the mouths and gills of larger fish, cleaning clients regardless of their size. One dominant male and several females form a group, and if the male dies, the most dominant female changes into a male within 24 hours.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
According to the National List of Species of Korea, it is observed along the coast of Jeju Island.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2010) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/187396/8523800
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 3RKVH
- • iucnredlist.org — 8523800
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000058772 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000058772
- • wikidata.org — Q2000165
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Lábrido limpiador común (Labroides dimidiatus), mar Roj
- • fishbase.se — Labroides-dimidiatus.html
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • animaldiversity.org — Labroides dimidiatus
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Anampses caeruleopunctatus)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.