Stick them where the sun’s rays don’t shine.
Although remoras are known to be clingy, some get too close for comfort by snuggling up behind a manta ray, according to a scientific study in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
“These fish are looking up at the back end,” said lead author Emily Yeager, a marine researcher at the University of Miami, on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “As It Happens” radio program.
Known as “cloacal diving,” the “uncomfortable” practice involves entering and exiting the giant critter’s cloaca — a multi-functional orifice used for both chewing and reproduction.
This appears to be a rebellious departure from the so-called benign suckerfish, which cling to marine mammals such as whales and sharks, scavenging parasites and dead skin for food, protection and free passage.
As it turns out, this so-called symbiotic relationship may be more parasitic than thought.
Although interference has been observed between remoras and whale sharks, this was the first time that these sea walkers have been documented getting behind manta rays.
Over the course of 15 years, researchers observed them practicing cloacal-ray diving seven times in different parts of the ocean – although Yeager believes this happens more often.
“We think this is an underreported phenomenon because, most of the time, you just see the tip of the tail coming out of the back of the manta ray,” the scientist said. “Of course they dedicate themselves to that place.”
Although the cause of this anal-seeking behavior is unclear, researchers believe it may be a fear response based on one of the clips.
In it, a remora is captured disappearing from a manta ray after being startled by a researcher.
This prompted the host to close its cloaca, before swimming with a water butt-plug inserted inside.
However, some believe that the remora can have a more offensive motive.
Brooke Flammang, a professor of biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, told the CBC that these background moras may be doing, “coprophagy – “Latin for eating poop” – and that the fish in the photo may have been trying to beat their rivals on social media.
“They can be a space-sharer for one host,” said Flammang, who was “not entirely surprised” that these suckerfish like to feed on the fanny.
As he said, “remoras are just weird.”
Although it’s hard to know what the radiation is doing in these underwater colonoscopies, Yeager suspects he doesn’t care too much about it.
In fact, behavior may influence mantas’ cloacal function over time, he theorizes.
“If they do that to the opening of the cloaca, which is probably more sensitive than other parts of the manta ray’s body, it can cause really big damage and affect the production and excretion of waste over time,” Yeager said.
Accordingly, the researcher believes that these so-called relationships are not completely compatible, but rather exist “on a spectrum, like any relationship in your life.”
