Fish surfing Clown Loaches

[Flapper]

I have a community tank which houses (among other fishes) a Pangasius Catfish and a small shoal of Clown Fish.

The Pangasius is about 10 inches long, the largest Clown 4 inches.

The Clowns seem to enjoy `Surfing` the Catfish where by they swim next to the Catfish (snuggled in tight behind the pectoral fin) and ride the Cat up and down. The Cat gets annoyed at this and swims faster and faster until the Clown can't keep up and is shaken off. The Clowns seem to take turns in doing this until they get bored, from what I can tell they seem to be playing with the Cat and rather enjoy it.

Can anyone explain this behaviour?
Incidentally the Cat comes to no harm by this activity and the Clowns only do it maybe once or twice a day. Certainly not an aggressive act.

Flapper.

 

[lizard]

I have no idea what they're doing or anything like that. Sorry. However, it sounds quite amusing to watch!

Pamela
aka Lizard

 

[Flapper]

Yes, it's rather fun to watch.



p.s. Oops, appears to have put this in the wrong area of the forum )
Perhaps a `Moddy` could move it for me.

 

[njparton]

Clown loaches are known for their odd nature - hence their name.

One of my clown loaches sleeps in the outlet from my external filter and the other swims with my silver shark or rest with my corys when he's alone.

Don't worry - enjoy

 

[bgraber]

Yeah my loaches used to swim and lay by my pleco(r.i.p).. Pleco didn't seem to mind too much, and it just seemed the loach liked the interaction.. They frequently swim around and rub up against each other and other silly things