FishProfiles.com Message Forums

So a few weeks ago my Blue Gourami (and a few other fish) had a bad case of fungus/finrot/whatever. They're all recovered and fine now after treatment though, but I noticed some very interesting interactions between the Gourami and the platies in my tank during his illness.

Numerous times during his illness, I noticed that 2 of my platies were regularly pecking at the gourami's fins and body. Now this isn't the usual 'fish picking on a dying/dead fish' type pecking. After numerous observations, I noticed a few things.

The behavior seemed to always be solicited by the Gourami. Typically, he would swim to where the platies were and simply hover around there (he spent most of his time on the ground when he was sick). Then, a platy would come and take a peck or 2 on his body or fins. From there, 2 things could happen. Either the gourami would flinch and swim away, or he would extend all fins to the fullest and hover in a precarious position, sometimes nose down! Now, with the fins extended, the platy would peck at his whole body until the gourami would either swim way or the platy would hit a sore spot and make the gourami dart away.

Do the gourami and platy (or their respective wild counterparts) live in the same place in the wild? That would explain how they seem to have developed this symbiotic behavior, or is this simply just something that happens often that I've just never seen before?

Anyways, at the very least, I wish I was able to capture some video of the behavior, it was really interesting and this is the kinda thing that I love about fishkeeping! I tried, but everytime I move anywhere near the tank, my platies think it's food time and immediately stop whatever they're doing

Wow, that's pretty awesome. What makes it even more interesting is that Gourami and Platy are from opposite hemispheres. Platies are from Central America and Gourami are from Asia.

That's really interesting. Scientific knowledge about biological interactions in freshwater systems such as cleaning behavior isn't great. According to a 2003 scientific paper I dug up related to this, poecilids are not known for cleaning behavior, although apparently a number of other fish groups are.

That's fascinating!

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I had a gourami appear to clean/nurse the open wound of another gourami for about a week. I remember being pretty freaked out seeing that.

The Amazon Nut...