Female cleaner fish can judge when to cheat without getting caught

Female cleaner fish can judge when to cheat without getting caught

Source: newscientist

9/30/2021

Credit: Hans Gert Broeder/Alamy

Female cleaner fish are sensitive to what their partners can and cannot see while working on client fish. This means they may have theory of mind, a concept built on awareness of other’s perspectives, often associated with humans and other primates.

Cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) typically work in male-female pairs to “clean” client fish by eating their dead skin cells and skin parasites. The wrasse actually prefer to eat the mucus produced by these client fish, but the clients can react to this by terminating the relationship – leaving the cleaners without food.

This means a lot is at stake when a male-female cleaner wrasse pair work as a team. If one fish cheats by attempting to eat mucus while their partner is cooperating with the client, this may leave both fish without food. If a male cleaner fish knows his female partner has cheated, he will sometimes punish her by chasing and even attempting to bite her, says Katherine McAuliffe at Boston College in Massachusetts.