Cleaning station

Such stations exist in both freshwater and marine environments, and are used by animals including fish, sea turtles and hippos.

[1] The cleaning process includes, but is not limited to, the removal of parasites (both externally and internally) and dead skin from the client's body, and is performed by various smaller animals, including cleaner shrimp and numerous species of cleaner fish, especially wrasses and gobies (Elacatinus spp.).

Other cleaning stations may be located under large clumps of floating seaweed or at an accepted point in a river or lagoon.

Cleaner fish also, obviously, affect cultural diversity around coral reefs, since clients with larger home ranges can access and, thus, choose between, a variety of cleaning stations,[3] visitor clients sometimes traveling long distances to a particular cleaning station.

[4] On the other hand, cleaning businesses have been damaged by predators disguising as cleaners in order to tear away scales or flesh of a victim.