Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies 22: 31-36(2020) Note Filling an empty role: first report of cleaning by pygmy angelfishes (Centropyge, Pomacanthidae) Pauline NARVAEZ*1, 2, 3 and Renato A. MORAIS1, 3 1 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia 2 Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia 3 College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, 1 James Cook Drive, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Aus tralia * Corresponding author: Pauline Narvaez Email:
[email protected] Communicated by Frederic Sinniger (Associate EditorinChief) Abstract Cleaner fishes remove ectoparasites, mucus and search of ectoparasites, mucus, and dead or diseased dead tissues from other ‘client’ organisms. These mutu tissue (Côté 2000; Côté and Soares 2011). Cleaners have alistic interactions provide benefits for the ‘clients’ and, been classified as either dedicated or facultative, depend on a larger scale, maintain healthy reef ecosystems. Here, ing on their degree of reliance on cleaning interactions for we report two species of angelfishes, Centropyge bicolor accessing food (Vaughan et al. 2017). While dedicated and C. tibicen, acting as cleaners of the blue tang cleaners rely almost exclusively on cleaning, facultative Paracanthurus hepatus in an aquarium. This observation ones also exploit other food sources. In total, 208 fish and is the first time that pygmy angelfishes are recorded 51 shrimp species have been reported as either dedicated cleaning in any en vironment. This novel cleaning ob or facultative cleaners (Vaughan et al. 2017).