Swift swimming reef fish as hosts of small juvenile sharksuckers

• Published in: Coral reefs Vol. 29; no. 4; p. 843
• Main Authors: Brunnschweiler, J. M, Sazima, I
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag 01-12-2010; Springer-Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agnatha. Pisces; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Life Sciences; Oceanography; Reef Site; Sea water ecosystems; Swimming; Synecology; Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution; Host Species; General Problem; Broad Variety; Fish Species; Reef Fish; Vertebrata; Pisces; Reef animal; Coral reef; Host; Swimming; Young animal
• ISSN: 0722-4028; 1432-0975
• DOI: 10.1007/s00338-010-0655-9

Sharksuckers, Echeneis naucrates, attach to a wide variety of hosts (OToole 2002; Brunnschweiler and Sazima 2008). Small juvenile sharksuckers are thought to first attach to relatively small and sluggish hosts before they switch to larger, faster moving fish. Here, we report that also larger and fast swimming reef fish such as jacks and sharks serve as hosts for small juvenile E. naucrates, as recorded in the Shark Reef Marine Reserve, Fiji (Brunnschweiler and Earle 2006). Between January and March 2008 and in February 2009 and 2010, small (<10 cm) sharksuckers were observed attached to the carangids Caranx ignobilis (Fig. 1a) and Elagatis bipinnulata (Fig. 1b) on 77 and 19.7% of sampling days (n = 61), respectively (video footage of sharksuckers attached to a variety of host species including C. ignobilis and E. bipinnulata can be found at http://www.explorers-log.com/ by typing in E. naucrates in the search box). Small E. naucrates were also recorded on the snapper Lutjanus bohar (26.2%) and occasionally on the shark Triaenodon obesus (Fig. 1c). These records indicate that small juvenile sharksuckers use a much broader variety of reef associated fish as hosts, including the swift swimming carangids. We attribute the fact that so far juvenile individuals have only been recorded on relatively sluggish fish specieswhich have been termed trial vehicles (Strasburg 1964; Brunnschweiler and Sazima 2008)to the general problem of detecting small remoras, in particular attached on fast-moving hosts. To our knowledge, no definition or concept of trial vehicle for remoras exists and we thus suggest avoiding this term in the future.