The shrimp swim out and climb all over the fish, picking it over for edible morsels, and even reaching into the gills or climbing into the mouths of large fish. A variety of other shrimp and small fish species also provide similar cleaning services in coral reefs the world over. For example, students in our Florida Keys Marine Biology course in January 1998 observed cleaning being done by neon gobies, blueheaded wrasses, juvenile porkfish, and a juvenile french angelfish. It is not uncommon at coral reefs to see groups of large fish lined up at cleaning stations waiting to be serviced by cleaner shrimp or cleaner fish. Tunicates have tadpole-like larvae that swim, but adults are sessile animals that feed on microorganisms filtered from the water.
Tunicates have two prominent openings, one for drawing water in, one for expelling water.
The large, feathery appendages emanating from the worms' heads trap tiny food particles from the water. Out of focus in the background are growths of the green algae Dictyosphaeria and Ventricaria . They have extremely large bubble-like cells visible to the naked eye. In the case of Ventricaria , these cells can exceed 1' in diameter. The pink and purple colors on the rocks are due to growths of encrusting coralline algae.