Fish Mystery: What’s Happening Inside Their Habitats?

Remoras are small fish that can stick to big animals like sharks and rays. They use a special suction cup on their heads. Remoras travel with these animals and eat parasites from their skin. For a long time, people thought this was a helpful relationship. Remoras got shelter and food, while the big animals stayed clean.

Now, some scientists think differently. Emily Yeager, a student at the University of Miami, studied remoras. She found that these fish often do not help their hosts. A study from 2025 showed that turtles with remoras ate less. Also, remoras can hurt their hosts. Some even go inside the bodies of their hosts.

Yeager wrote a paper showing that remoras swim inside the cloacas of manta rays. The cloaca is an opening for various body functions. This might harm the manta rays. They cannot easily remove the remoras because they don’t have hands.

Yeager hopes that in the future, scientists can learn more about how remoras interact with their hosts. Relationships in nature can be complicated.

How much do you know?

What do remoras use to stick to big animals?

Teeth

Fins

Suction cup

Gills

Who studied remoras at the University of Miami?

Sarah Johnson

Emily Yeager

Michael Smith

Rachel Wong

What did the 2025 study find about turtles with remoras?

They ate more

They were healthier

They ate less

They swam faster

What part of manta rays do remoras swim inside?

Mouth

Gills

Cloaca

Fins

What do remoras primarily eat off their hosts?

Flesh

Parasites

Algae

Plankton

What type of relationship did people initially think existed between remoras and big animals?

Harmful

Helpful

Neutral

Symbiotic

Remoras are large fish that primarily hunt other fish.

True False

Emily Yeager discovered that remoras can sometimes hurt their hosts.

True False

The cloaca is an opening for various body functions.

True False

Remoras provide a cleaning service for manta rays without any negative effects.

True False

Some remoras enter inside the bodies of their hosts.

True False

Scientists fully understand the relationships between remoras and their hosts.

True False

Remoras are small fish that can stick to big animals like sharks and rays using a special suction cup on their heads. They travel with these animals and eat parasites from their skin. However, a study found that turtles with remoras ate less.

Emily Yeager studied remoras at the University of Miami and wrote a paper showing that they swim inside the of manta rays.

Some scientists now think that the relationship between remoras and big animals is rather than helpful.

The cloaca is an opening that has various functions.

Remoras can cause harm to their hosts because they cannot easily remove the due to not having hands.

Yeager hopes that in the future, scientists can learn more about how remoras with their hosts.

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