Loaches Online Forum

I have 3 zebra loaches in my community tank and on a few occasions I have witnessed one of them 'shadowing' some of my other fish. By shadowing I mean swimming side by side with the other fish almost like they are glued together and almost despite how fast the other fish swims the zebra loach is right there with it. I have seen the zebra loach do it with a slightly larger than it clown loach as well as a much larger Australian Rainbowfish. It's kind of funny to watch really. Has anyone else witnessed this?

Botia striata are indeed active loaches. So are many other loaches, when still juvenile. But i'll agree with you. These do like to 'hover' and 'buzz' around other fish. Similar to the Y. sidthimunki & Y. nigrolineata .

Mine are still very young and do the same thing with the Harlequin Rasbora that they are in with. They really do it a lot with the B. Dario too.

mine also do it and they don't seem to harm any of the fish so i'm assuming it's normal and ok as long as no harm is done

I've seen this happening regularly with my Clown loaches for over 10 years now. I know exactly what you mean - they look as if they are glued together by the gills, and no matter which way or how fast the 'main' fish swims, the others will not let go. I have termed it their 'joining up' behaviour. It is always the smaller loaches that join up with a bigger fish - it doesn't have to be hugely larger, but there is always a size difference. It looks particularly funny when Marge (our 11.5" Clown) is joined by several small Clowns on either side. She doesn't know what to do! I've even seen her try to squeeze into a relatively small sized gaps (well, small for her!) to try and loose them! In some cases, because of the big size difference, the really small ones (3.5") appear to be resting on her pectoral fins.

Here's a picture of this happening with Marge and another (medium sized) Clown, although it doesn't do it justice at all as it's something you really need to see happening rather than looking at a still picture. I really need to get a video camera to record some of this behaviour:



Emma

Its as though they are waiting for regurgitated food aka bird style !

mine do it too, but the rostrata more than the striata.

If you want to see something funny, put zebra danios in with your striatas.