快猫短视频

WOULD you keep going to the same dry-cleaner if they ripped you off and did a bad job? Of course not, and it seems that similar market forces are at work on coral reefs, where fish that perform a cleaning service risk losing customers if they get sloppy.

快猫短视频s studying these fish conclude that healthy competition is sometimes important in ecology, helping to stabilise co-operation between species.

Redouan Bshary of the University of Cambridge and Daniel Sch盲ffer of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Seewiesen, Germany, have seen a free-market economy at work in the interactions between cleaner wrasse and their client fish on the reefs of Ras Muhammad, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt.

Client fish regularly visit cleaning stations where the wrasse nibble parasites from their bodies鈥攖he aquatic equivalent of a valeting service. But the cleaners can 鈥渃heat鈥� in this transaction, feeding on mucus or even the tissues of the client instead.

The temptation to cheat may be strong. 鈥淢ucus seems to be quite energy-rich and cleaners do not have to search for it, while they have to search for parasites,鈥� says Bshary.

Although predatory client species can attack the cleaners if they feel cheated, non-predatory clients are powerless to threaten revenge. So their arrangement would seem doomed鈥攃heating should become widespread, so long as the cleaners remove just enough parasites to keep clients coming back for further sessions when they get desperate.

But Bshary and Sch盲ffer have shown that market forces keep the cleaning standards high. They looked at non-predatory client fish, such as the long-nosed parrotfish, that have large territories containing several cleaning stations.

Fish were less likely to visit stations where they had previously been cheated or had to wait in a queue. 鈥淚 would not be surprised if clients eventually avoid a station completely if they are cheated repeatedly,鈥� says Bshary.

By exercising what amounts to consumer choice, the client fish promote healthy competition between all the cleaning stations, and this ensures good quality service, the researchers conclude.