Marine Biodiversity Records, page 1 of 2.
# Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 2010
doi:10.1017/S1755267210000655; Vol. 3; e75; 2010 Published online
First record of the silver porgy (Diplodus
argenteus) cleaning green turtles (Chelonia
mydas) in the south-west Atlantic
ju’lia reisser1, mai’ra proietti1 and ivan sazima2
1
Laboratório de Tartarugas e Mamı́feros Marinhos, Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Avenida Itália
km 8, CP 474, 96201-900 Rio Grande, RS, Brazil, 2Museu de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 13083-970 Campinas,
São Paulo, Brazil (retired and associated as voluntary researcher)
The silver porgy (Diplodus argenteus) is an occasional cleaner of two species of fish in the southern portion of the south-west
Atlantic. We record herein for the first time this fish species associating with green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and cleaning their
carapaces. Only juveniles were recorded cleaning turtles, scraping off microorganisms that fouled the carapace.
Keywords: cleaning symbiosis, Sparidae, Cheloniidae, epibionts, southern Brazil
Submitted 3 May 2010; accepted 26 May 2010
The silver porgy (Diplodus argenteus) of the Sparidae is an
occasional cleaner of two species of fish in the south-west
Atlantic (Sazima, 1986; Krajewski, 2007). In a recent overview
of fish that clean sea turtles (Sazima et al., 2010), 18 reef fish
species in seven families are recorded as cleaners/grazers of
epibionts of three turtle species of the Cheloniidae. Nine of
these fish species (50%) are recorded for the south-west
Atlantic (Sazima et al., 2010). The only sparid recorded associ-
ated with sea turtles is the sheepshead bream (Diplodus
puntazzo), cleaning the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) in
the Mediterranean Sea off Greece (Schofield et al., 2006).
We record herein for the first time a sparid (Diplodus argen-
teus) associating with green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and
cleaning their carapaces in the south-west Atlantic.
Field work was conducted at the rocky shores of Arvoredo
Island (about 27817′ S 48818′ W), off Santa Catarina, southern
Brazil. From 2004 to 2008, 334 SCUBA and snorkelling dives
(227 hours) at depths 0.5 –17 m were conducted in bays of
Arvoredo Island, totaling 23 hours of direct underwater obser-
vation of turtle behaviour. Ad libitum and ‘behaviour’ sam-
plings (Martin & Bateson, 1986) of general behaviours of
focal animals were recorded in sessions that lasted 1–30
minutes. When a cleaning behaviour was sighted, both the
turtle and the fish had their sizes estimated (curved carapace
length (CCL) and total length (TL), respectively). One
cleaned turtle was caught after a cleaning session to collect a
sample of epibionts from the spot where the fish were
feeding. Only immature individuals of the green turtle were
recorded at the shores of Arvoredo Island, which seem to
present a degree of residency at this protected area (Reisser
et al., 2008).
Corresponding author:
I. Sazima
Email: isazima@gmail.com
Silver porgy (Diplodus argenteus) juveniles 3– 4 cm TL
were observed repeatedly biting at the carapaces of green
turtles (Chelonia mydas) 30– 60 cm CCL on five occasions.
One to two juvenile fish individuals feeding on the same
turtle were recorded (Figure 1). The cleaned turtle was
either swimming slowly in the water column (N ¼ 2) or
hovering while feeding on red algae (Pterocladiella capillacea)
belts on rocky reefs (N ¼ 3).
The epibionts scraped from the green turtle were mostly
Cyanobacteria (blue green ‘algae’) of the Chroococalles, both
colonial (63.1%) and unicellular (27.6%), and Oscillatoriales
including Lyngbya sp. (4.6%). Chlorophyta (green algae)
comprised 3.7%, and the remaining microorganisms found
on the carapace were Bacillariophyta (diatoms, 0.7%), and
Ciliophora, Vorticellidae (ciliates, 0.2%). Juvenile porgies are
omnivores that feed on benthic invertebrates, seaweeds, and
zooplankton (Sazima, 1986; Carvalho-Filho, 1999), and most
likely benthic microorganisms and epibionts such as those
listed above are part of the diet of the small juveniles we
recorded cleaning green turtles. Our findings are consistent
with a study of the diet of the silver porgy in the same
general area we conducted our observations (Dubiaski-Silva
& Masunari, 2004).
Juvenile silver porgies are able to change their cleaning
stations while servicing fish (Krajewski, 2007), which is con-
sistent with our observations of sea turtle cleaning. Our
records, although admittedly few (N ¼ 5) demonstrate that
juvenile porgies are able to move along with slowly swimming
turtles, and that they join green turtles at their feeding
grounds. Reef fish cleaning sea turtles has been claimed to
be a localized phenomenon, restricted to particular popu-
lations and/or individuals (Losey et al., 1994). However,
data from literature and the present study indicate that reef
fish that graze on, clean, or use sea turtles as feeding
grounds otherwise, are more common than the available
records would indicate (Sazima et al., 2010).
1
2 ju’ lia reisser et al.
Fig. 1. Two juvenile silver porgies (Diplodus argenteus) grazing on epibionts
on the carapace of an algae-foraging green turtle (Chelonia mydas) at
Arvoredo Island, off southern Brazil. Drawing by Maı́ra Proietti.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Patadacobra Diving and the Brazilian Navy for
logistic support, and all the personnel involved in data collec-
tion. We also thank Clarisse Odebrecht for identification of
the epibionts. Three anonymous referees helped to improve
the paper. M.P. and J.R. received scholarships from the
CNPq (National Council for Technological and Scientific
Development—Brazil), and I.S. had a grant from the CNPq
at the period of this study.
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Correspondence should be addressed to:
I. Sazima
Museu de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
email: isazima@gmail.com