Bimini - help fish ID

[scubaPT]

I took this photo of a stoplight parrotfish on the Sapona in Bimini.
Does anyone know what type fish is attached to him. It sort of looks like a sharksucker but I could be wrong. I was so intent on trying to get this shot that I totally missed the scorpionfish that is right in front of the parrotfish. All I got was his backend.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Aggie Diver]

Looks like a cleaner wrasse, don't think the head is wide enough to be a remora (shark sucker).

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Actually it is a sharksucker, or remora. Its too big to be a wrasse, and the white stripe is a giveaway. Look at his head, you can see the flat part.

 

[onbelaydave]

I've seen many attached to Parrotfish in Coz.

 

[scubaPT]

Thanks guys.
I kind of thought it was a sharksucker , but since I have never seen one until now I wasn't really sure.

 

[archman]

Looks like a cleaner wrasse, don't think the head is wide enough to be a remora (shark sucker).

You're right, the head IS too narrow for it to be Remora. However, it's dead-on for a sharksucker, seeing that it is a sharksucker. Specifically, Echeneis naucrates. This is the largest species in the Caribbean, and the one I almost always encounter. I'd give my left eye to see an actual remora... I need to find some mantas

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Ok. Learned something new today. I thought a sharksucker and a remora were the same animal.

 

[archman]

Ok. Learned something new today. I thought a sharksucker and a remora were the same animal.

I go to great pains beating this out of my reef fish ecology students. It's about the only time I'll use common names as a benchmark for differentiating genera within the same taxonomic family. I tried teaching use of the term "echeneids" once... didn't float over too well.

 

[Nay]

OK, what's the difference?
I always thought that shark sucker was a termed used by people who didn't know the word remora.
The both seem to have flat heads and obivously are free loaders.
At the Aquarium of the Pacific here, there are a number of what they call remoras. They're 2-3 ft in length, their heads look like someone left a shoe print on them and they've gotten too big for the black tip sharks so tend to hang with the turtles.
Thanks Archman

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

yeah, what is the difference?