About Aspidontus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1834
The false cleanerfish, whose scientific name is Aspidontus taeniatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1834, is a species of combtooth blenny. It is a mimic that copies both the appearance and the movement dance of Labroides dimidiatus, commonly known as the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, a similarly colored cleaner wrasse species. It is thought that this mimicry evolved to help it avoid predation, and also let it approach other fish to bite their fins instead of eating parasites like the actual cleaner wrasse does. Most of these deceptive attacks target juvenile fish, because adult fish that have been attacked by this species in the past usually avoid it, or may even attack it themselves. This species is native to coral reef habitats in the Indo-Pacific region.
