Marine cleaning stations as hotspots for cryptobenthic reef fish

Species interactions are fundamental drivers of biodiversity, and the benefits of species interactions often extend beyond the directly interacting parties. Within coral reef ecosystems, cleaning mutualisms whereby ‘cleaner’ species remove ectoparasites from ‘client’ species at dedicated cleaning ‘stations’ are well documented, yet the indirect benefits to third parties remain relatively unknown. Specifically, cleaning stations may act as a refuge via predation mitigation, which could indirectly benefit functionally important groups of reef fishes, such as cryptobenthic reef fishes (CRF). CRF are the most abundant group of reef fishes, display rapid turnover due to high predation and are vital to marine food webs. We provide the first evidence of an association between CRF communities and the presence of obligate cleaner goby (Elacatinus lobeli) cleaning stations in the Caribbean. Through in situ quadrat surveys, we found a significantly higher abundance and diversity of CRF around E. lobeli cleaning stations (n=21) compared to control areas (n=21). These findings highlight the importance of the indirect benefits of species interactions on third party species and suggests that cleaning stations have the potential to help maintain communities of fundamentally important reef fishes which could have cascading consequences for coral reef food webs and ecosystem functioning.