Dancing their way out of a fishy situation

A University of Queensland Australian Research Fellow has discovered that some fish are able to dance their way out of tricky situations.

Dr Lexa Grutter from the School of Life Sciences has found cleaner-fish use a peculiar yet effective conflict resolution technique, swimming in an oscillating fashion, known as “tactile dancing”.

In fish cleaning interactions, cleaner-fish eat parasites from other fish, often entering the client’s mouth without being cheated and eaten.

Dr Grutter said one of the most common questions about cooperative interactions in nature was how the cooperation was maintained when cheating was more profitable.

“Theory predicts that the benefits of eating a cleaner-fish are dependent on the client’s hunger level and parasite load. However, field observations suggest cleaner-fish tactically stimulate client-fish through a pre-conflict management behaviour,” she said.

Through her observations Dr Grutter was able to show that tactile dancing may function as a pre-conflict management strategy, varying according to client hunger level and enabling cleaner-fish to avoid conflict with potentially dangerous clients.

To do this Dr Grutter manipulated the hunger levels and parasite loads of coral trout client fish. She then recorded the behaviour of blue-streak cleaner fish towards the client fish.

“Tactile dancing involves the cleaner-fish oscillating its posterior body in a dorsal-ventral manner within 15cm of the client, mainly in one place, while often contacting the client with its body,” Dr Grutter said.

Dr Grutter’s research, which was conducted at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, also shows cleaner fish dance more when they are exposed to hungry client-fish rather than satiated ones, regardless of the parasite load of the client-fish.

“Tactile dancing appears to serve as a signal sent from one species to another to manage conflicts in complex social environments and therefore maintain cooperation,” she said.

Media: For more information or photos, contact Dr Grutter on telephone (07 3365 7386, email: a.grutter@uq.edu.au) or Chris Saxby at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2479, email: c.saxby@uq.edu.au).