I took this photo of two wrasse/s at a fish cleaning station at Rapid Bay jetty during a dive last Sunday morning (11/8/24): –
I suspect that the small juvenile* Blackspotted Wrasse is in host role rather than being part of a queue at this cleaning station.
* (It is an older juvenile, but I believe that it is still immature, so it is still a juvenile by definition.)
The cleaning station’s current client is clearly the male Brownspotted Wrasse, but I couldn’t see any other hosts e.g. Western Cleaner Clingfish or juvenile Moonlighters.
So, the issue here is my uncertainty regarding whether the Blackspotted Wrasse is a host or just a queued client.
I also took these two photos of sponges during my dive: –
I am calling the two sponges different types of ‘boring sponges’ – No.1 & No.2. This is, however, a provisional ID as I suppose that they could be just the one species, but as different colour morphs. All this conjecture is just pure guesswork by me at this time.
(Editor’s note – “Marine Invertebrates of Southern Australia – Part I” edited by SA Shepherd & IM Thomas, says that sponges from the family Clionidae (Order Hadromerida) are “Sponge boring in calcareous material ….”. “A field guide to the marine invertebrates of South Australia” by Karen Gowlett-Holmes features one unidentified sponge species from the family Clionaidae and one other unidentified species that may be from that family, The latter species is said to bore “into substrate using acid secretions, then (form) encrusting areas over substrate”. The former species, referred to as just Cliona sp., is said to be “Found boring in limestone rocks and large shells ….. Bores into substrate using acid secretions”.)