FishOccasionalVisible while snorkeling

Live sharksucker

Echeneis naucrates

The sea's eternal hitchhiker: the sharksucker wears a suction disc on its head and rides turtles, rays – and occasionally divers – around the reef.

Photo: iNaturalist – (c) Luis P. B., some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Luis P. B.

The live sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates) carries one of the marine world's strangest inventions on its head: over evolutionary time its first dorsal fin has become a ridged suction disc that can clamp onto any large, smooth surface within seconds. Its slim greyish body wears a bold black-and-white lengthwise stripe, and its lower jaw juts forward as if it were forever sulking.

Hitchhiking is its way of life: it rides attached to sharks, rays, turtles and big fish, saving energy, enjoying protection and sharing crumbs from its host's meals. In return it sometimes picks parasites off the host's skin, so the arrangement is more helpful than annoying. Between rides the sharksucker copes perfectly well on its own, swimming free over the reef and hunting small fish and crustaceans.

Around Hurghada you will most often see it as the loyal companion of green sea turtles: on the seagrass meadows of Abu Hashish and Dolphin House, almost every grazing turtle carries a stowaway or two on its belly or shell. Free-swimming individuals also turn up on the reefs around Giftun – and yes, occasionally an enthusiastic remora sizes up a diver's tank as its next ride. Just keep swimming calmly: it soon works out there is no free lunch with you.

Did you know?

Some coastal peoples actually put the remora to work: they tied a line to its tail, released it, and when the fish clamped onto a turtle they simply hauled the catch in – making the sharksucker the world's first piece of living fishing tackle.

Where can you meet it?

One or two sharksuckers ride almost every turtle grazing on the seagrass meadows of Abu Hashish and Dolphin House, and free-swimming individuals also appear on the reefs around Giftun.

Frequently asked questions

A young remora does occasionally pick a diver or their tank as a ride – it is harmless, at most ticklish. The disc causes no injury, and the fish lets go by itself once it realises you are not a shark. Do not try to pull it off; just keep swimming calmly.

It is not a parasite: it does not feed on its host, it only holds on. In fact it occasionally nibbles parasites and dead skin off the turtle, so the host usually benefits from its stowaway – at worst it is annoyed by the extra drag.