Manta rays navigate vast marine environments. Maintaining health and cleanliness is a continuous process for them, met through a natural phenomenon known as a cleaning station. These unique underwater service points provide specialized care for the large rays.
What are Manta Ray Cleaning Stations?
Manta ray cleaning stations are specific, naturally occurring locations within reef ecosystems that manta rays frequent for hygiene. These sites are found on coral bommies, prominent rock outcrops, or elevated reef sections, often in shallower waters ranging from 10 to 30 meters deep. These formations provide a stable substrate where cleaner fish establish their territories and await clients. These are designated, often long-term, natural service points within the reef environment.
The physical attributes of these stations, such as their elevation and distinct features, make them easily identifiable and accessible for the large rays. Manta rays learn and remember these locations, returning repeatedly. The consistent presence of both cleaner fish and manta rays makes these areas dynamic hubs of interspecies interaction.
The Symbiotic Relationship
The interaction at a cleaning station exemplifies a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between manta rays and various smaller cleaner fish species. Manta rays visit these stations to have external parasites, dead skin, and other debris removed from their bodies. This process helps maintain their skin integrity, reduce potential infections, and improve overall health.
Cleaner fish, such as certain species of wrasses (e.g., bluestreak cleaner wrasse, Labroides dimidiatus), gobies (e.g., neon gobies, Elacatinus oceanops), and butterflyfish (e.g., blackback butterflyfish, Chaetodon melannotus), perform this service. These fish establish territories at the cleaning stations and feed on the parasites and dead tissue they remove from the rays. This provides a consistent and abundant food source for the cleaner fish.
Manta Ray Behavior at Cleaning Stations
Upon arriving at a cleaning station, manta rays exhibit distinct behaviors that facilitate the cleaning process. They position themselves directly over the cleaning station, hovering almost motionless in the water column. Some rays may adopt a “head-stand” posture, pointing their cephalic fins downwards, or engage in slow, deliberate circling patterns. This allows the cleaner fish easy access to all parts of their large bodies.
The rays hold their mouths slightly open and flare their gill slits, inviting the cleaner fish to enter and clean these sensitive areas. Multiple manta rays may wait in a queue for their turn at a busy station. This orderly behavior highlights the trust these massive creatures place in the tiny fish performing the cleaning service.
Global Locations and Conservation
Manta ray cleaning stations are found across tropical and subtropical waters worldwide, near productive coral reefs, seamounts, and submerged pinnacles. Notable locations include sites in the Indo-Pacific, such as the Maldives, Indonesia, and Australia, and in the Eastern Pacific, including areas off Mexico and Ecuador. These stations are ecologically important, serving as aggregation points not only for manta rays but also for other large pelagic fish and reef sharks seeking similar cleaning services.
The health and availability of these cleaning stations are important for manta ray populations. Threats such as habitat degradation from pollution, coastal development, and destructive fishing practices can directly impact the reef structures that form these stations. Overfishing of cleaner fish species, though less common, could also disrupt this delicate ecological balance. Global threats like climate change and ocean acidification pose risks to the entire reef ecosystem, underscoring the need for comprehensive conservation efforts to protect both manta rays and their cleaning habitats.
References
Manta Trust. “Cleaning Stations.” Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.mantatrust.org/cleaning-stations.
National Geographic. “Manta Ray.” Accessed July 31, 2025. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/facts/manta-ray.