False Cleanerfish
Aspidontus taeniatus
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Actinopterygii
- Order
- Blenniiformes
- Family
- Blenniidae
- Genus
- Aspidontus
- Species
- Aspidontus taeniatus
The false cleanerfish (Aspidontus taeniatus) is a sabretooth blenny that mimics the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, using the disguise to bite chunks of fin and skin from unsuspecting fish. Its blue body and black stripe are an almost perfect copy of the real cleaner.
It grows to about 11-12 cm. The best way to tell it from the cleaner wrasse is its underslung mouth, set back from the snout tip, while the real cleaner's mouth is at the very tip. Besides attacking fish, it also eats fish eggs, tube worms and other invertebrates.
The false cleanerfish is found across the Indo-Pacific, including the Philippines, where it lives on coral reefs, often close to real cleaner wrasse stations.