The Japanese cleaner wrasses, though, fell within the same group as Indian Ocean fish, despite differing in appearance, and both clades overlap around Papua New Guinea.

[5] The bluestreak cleaner wrasse is found on coral reefs in the tropics from the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to the western Pacific (including Papua New Guinea, Japan, Fiji, and French Polynesia).

[5] It was first recorded from the Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve north of New Zealand in 2015, after researchers examined hundreds of hours of unused documentary film footage.

In different regions, the bluestreak cleaner wrasse displays various degrees of dependency on clients' ectoparasites as a primary food source.

[16] In the Marsa Bareika of the Ras Mohamed Nature Reserve, Egypt, the bluestreak cleaner wrasse live in specific sectors of the shallow reefs and are shown to rely on ectoparasites from species such as the brown surgeonfish and white belly damselfish.

For example, a species of blenny called Aspidontus taeniatus has evolved the same behavior to tear small pieces of flesh or skin from bigger fish rather than rid them of parasites.