Hawaiian cleaner wrasse

Photo: Philip Thomas · CC BY-NC

Hawaii's endemic cleaner wrasse — the only member of its genus in the Hawaiian Islands — operates fixed cleaning stations on the chamber walls and entrance ledges of First Cathedral. Clients ranging from surgeonfish to moray eels queue at these stations and assume specific submissive postures that signal their intent to be cleaned rather than to eat the wrasse. This species is more brightly coloured than its Indo-Pacific relatives, with electric blue and magenta striping, and its endemism makes its conservation status of particular concern relative to global trade in cleaner wrasse for aquarium systems.