--- title: Coral reef partners and tricksters: clownfish, cleaners, mimics and puffers — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Coral reef partners and tricksters: clownfish, cleaners, mimics and puffers», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A coral reef is a busy town where many animals make deals: you help me and I help you, like tw --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Coral reef partners and tricksters: cl… # Coral reef partners and tricksters: clownfish, cleaners, mimics and puffers Lesson 173 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/0/) — A coral reef is a busy town where many animals make deals: you help me and I help you, like two friends where one carries the shopping and the other opens the doors. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/1/) — A clownfish lives safely among the stinging tentacles of a sea anemone and chases away fish that would nibble it, a little cleaner fish swims into a big fish's open mouth to pick it clean, and a nearly blind shrimp digs a home that a goby fish guards. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/2/) — Other reef animals win by tricks: a fake eye near the tail, a fish that swells into a spiky ball, an octopus that pretends to be a lionfish and then a sea snake. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/3/) — Bright colours on a reef often mean the opposite of hiding: a glowing sea slug or a lionfish with spread fins is saying keep away, I taste bad or I sting. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/4/) — Clownfish live among the tentacles of sea anemones without getting stung; the clownfish chases away fish that eat anemones, and the anemone protects the clownfish, which rarely swims far from it. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/7/) — The mimic octopus copies the shapes and movements of dangerous animals such as lionfish and sea snakes; it was first noticed in 1998 off Indonesia. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/8/) — Many reef fish have a false eye spot near the tail, so a hunter strikes at the wrong end while the fish darts away. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/9/) — Pufferfish swallow water to swell into a ball too big to eat, and a male pufferfish draws beautiful circles in the sand on the sea floor to attract a female. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/10/) — Groupers shake their heads at moray eels to invite them to hunt together; the eel goes into cracks and the grouper catches fish that flee into open water. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/11/) — The trumpetfish hides by swimming glued to the side of a larger harmless fish, and it also hangs head down among soft corals looking like one more stick. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/12/) — Green turtles visit cleaning stations where fish pick algae off their shells, and as adults they eat plants, which gives their fat a green colour. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/13/) — Sea slugs called nudibranchs are bright to warn that they taste bad or sting, and some keep algae inside them and make food from sunlight. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/173-coral-reef-partners-and-tricksters-clownfish-cleaners-mimics-and-puffers/14/) — Lionfish have venomous spines and hunt small fish; where they have spread far from their home seas and few hunters eat them, divers hunt them and chefs cook them to help reefs. - ← previous: [Coral reef builders: polyps, bleaching, sand from parrotfish and giant clams](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/172-coral-reef-builders-polyps-bleaching-sand-from-parrotfish-and-giant-clams/) - next →: [Reef giants and wanderers: whale sharks, mantas, dugongs and sea turtles](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/174-reef-giants-and-wanderers-whale-sharks-mantas-dugongs-and-sea-turtles/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)