Loach Leadership Contests -- E tu, khuli?

[mikev]

Hmm, maybe I found the right forum for this kind of stuff....

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It appears that Khulis have the same kind of a leadership (pecking order) concept as the other loaches.

A few days ago I saw the most amazing fish "show" ever:

Three khulis were doing a crazy dance for about an hour. During the dance, their heads were close together with barbels locked up (I even thought that somehow they managed to glue themselves together); the bodies wrapping around each other and the entire *thing* quickly spinning in the middle of the tank (think of a double -- and occassionally triple -- DNA helix in a quick rotation.). Most of the time the dance involved only two khulis -- with each possible pair taking its turn and the remaining khuli resting; occassionally all three were doing together. The other two khulis in the tank (who are smaller!) took no part in the battle and moved to the opposite corner of the tank.

This is the first (and probably the only time) I've seen anything like this... My other khulis (both Myer's and Blacks) never did this.

I'm fairly sure it was a contest and not a spawning behavior: these khulis are new (I had them for 3 weeks), and stopped hiding only a week ago: this is when other loaches I had would set up the hierarchy. The involvement of the three khulis in all three combinations (I'm sure of this -- all three have distinct marks) rules out sex too, I suppose.

It is totally unclear why would khulis need to establish the order...

Did anyone ever see anything like this?

Now, I'm also very curious how other loaches do it.

Here is what I know:

1. Barbel competition: lock up barbels and push. Clown loaches do this; and **maybe** yo-yo's too (mine are too small but they were doing something like this, I think).
2. Running around in circles: Schistura and Angelicus (polka-dot).
3. Both at once: Myers' Khulis.

What about the others? Anyone here has Modesta, Skunks, Tigers, Zebras, grown-up Yoyo's..... and would be kind enough to report on how they do it?

[Azmeaiel]

My yoyo's have been competing for a few days, lots of 'chasing and nipping' and something I have been calling the 'fish slap dance' where they go side by side and wriggle back and forth, slapping at each other, fins spread and colour a pale grey all over. After this they will start biting each other untill one flees.