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Reef behaviors › Cleaning

The night shift

The night shift: Cleaning in the Spinyhead coral reef game

At night the cleaning gobies sleep, and cleaner shrimps take over, picking parasites from fish that visit them in the dark.

Species involved

Where to see it in the game: After dark, near the cleaner shrimp.
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Spinyhead is a free game you play in your browser: you are a spinyhead blenny, a fish about 3 cm long living in a worm hole on a Caribbean coral head. Feed, fight for a better hole, court, raise eggs and dodge predators, while everything around you behaves the way field biologists have seen it behave. Most behaviors in the game come from published field studies; the rest are borrowed from other reefs or extrapolated, and this page says which. There are 82 on these pages, and more in the game’s field notebook waiting to be found.

More cleaning

Posing for the cleaners
Posing for the cleanersCleaning
An honest approach
An honest approachCleaning
All done
All doneCleaning
A change of color
A change of colorCleaning
Into the jaws
Into the jawsCleaning
A moray at the station
A moray at the stationCleaning
A butterflyfish cleaned
A butterflyfish cleanedCleaning

Other reef behaviors to discover

The worm snaps shut
The worm snaps shutWorms
A nip at the plume
A nip at the plumeWorms
A new tube
A new tubeWorms
The fourth eye
The fourth eyeFoureye butterflyfish
A young foureye
A young foureyeFoureye butterflyfish
No two alike
No two alikeFoureye butterflyfish
A rider under the eye
A rider under the eyeFoureye butterflyfish
Lying low
Lying lowFoureye butterflyfish
Infected rivals
Infected rivalsFoureye butterflyfish
The pair’s greeting
The pair’s greetingCleaning gobies
Tending the nest
Tending the nestCleaning gobies
Threat display
Threat displayCleaning gobies
Seen off
Seen offCleaning gobies
Mate guarding
Mate guardingCleaning gobies
Inspected and ignored
Inspected and ignoredCleaning gobies
A clutch hatches
A clutch hatchesCleaning gobies
Regular customers
Regular customersCleaning gobies
Small fry
Small fryCleaning gobies
A single female’s station
A single female’s stationCleaning gobies
A new partner
A new partnerCleaning gobies
The spawning
The spawningCoral spawning
Storm swell
Storm swellWeather
A copepod swarm
A copepod swarmPlankton
The swarm breaks up
The swarm breaks upPlankton

See all 82 behaviors →