Mutualism

In biology today, we read about mutualism and a few of the animals that are involved in symbiotic relationships. A symbiotic relationship is when two organisms are in contact with each other, and being in the relationship, they both benefit from it through each other.

Once we were done reading enough about mutualism, we moved on to read about three types of fish, that are involved in symbiotic relationships.

The first one is the clown fish. Most of you should know that the clown fish live in sea anemones because the sea anemone has a poison that only the clown fish can withstand. Thus, the anemone is a safe haven from predators, who dare not touch the deadly tentacles of the anemone. This relationship is symbiotic, because of two things:

1. The anemone offers protection to the clown fish with its deadly and poisonous tentacles.

2. The clown fish brings food to the anemone, by attracting dumb fish who don't know that the anemone is a trap. So when fish go in for the attack, the anemone kills them, and then begins to feed on the dead fish.

This is an amazing and great example of symbiosis and mutualism.

The second fish we learned about today was the Gobi fish and Blind shrimp. They both live in a hole together at the bottom of the ocean. This is a symbiotic relationship because:

1. The shrimp is the builder of their home and since the currents often collapse the hole, he is constantly rebuilding the hole.

2. The Gobi fish is the lookout for predators. While the shrimp works and since it is blind, it keeps a feeler touching the Gobi constantly. So when the Gobi see a predator approaching, he wiggles his fin, and the blind shrimp, feeling it wiggle with it's sensor, then retreats into the hole, along with the Gobi fish.

In the picture above, you can see the reddish Gobi fish, and the yellow blind shrimp, with its feeler/sensor on it's companion's fin.

The last fish we learned about was awesome! The Oriental Sweetlips is a fish with teeth. It has no way or means of brushing them, and so its teeth can rot away quickly. God was amazing enough to create another fish, designed specifically for the task of "brushing" the teeth of the Oriental Sweetlips. So the little fish, the Blue-streak wrasses, benefits through this by having a tasty meal, which he eats of the the Oriental Sweetlips teeth, and the Oriental Sweetlips get's a free cleaning of his teeth! Here's a picture of both fish...

I think the little blue sliver towards the bottom right is the Blue-streak wrasses.