Have you ever seen your fish mimicking another species in the tank?

[EpisodeMnH]

I ask because I have a pair of Clowns, and as anybody who has a pair knows, they do that seizure-like twitch to eachother as both breeding behavior and to establish dominance between the two.

I have a Banggai Cardinal who seems to have made himself a part of their group. He stays right next to them pretty much at all times and they seem to allow it, I’ve never seen any kind of aggression between them and they’ve been a “trio” for a while now.

But the most bizarre thing, which I haven’t seen any of the other fish do, is that the Banggai now mimics the Clowns and twitches back at them, especially the orange one. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Do you have any interspecies fish that became close and started imitating eachother?

 

[Al Blue4.6l]

My melanarus wrasse eats nori whenever his buddy the lavender tang does.

 

[Just John]

In my freshwater tank I used to have a school of tiger barbs. They are somewhat aggressive and will chase around other fish nipping their fins if bored. I also had a clown loach. This super chill fish lived quietly on the bottom and had stripes like the tiger barbs. He decided to join the pack. He never sat on the bottom anymore and only swam with the tiger barbs. They accepted him and he helped them chase the other loaches around the tank.

 

[fachatga]

Had a wrasse who thought he was a bird. Didn’t get far though.

 

[Just John]

Had a wrasse who thought he was a bird. Didn’t get far though.

Have a big dojo loach that thought the same! Hit his head hard (I heard it in another room way down the hall) on the glass lid. Got a concussion and lay on the bottom upside down for 3 days, on his side for 2, and then finally started slowly swimming again.

 

[FishTruck]

I have a goldflake angel who thinks it's a tang. Swims right around with them and tail slaps them, goes after nori like crazy, it's really funny to me.

 

[Rubymoon286]

Not in my marine tanks, but I had a Betta years ago that would swim near the gravel and try to bite at it along side my school of panda corydoras!

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Not quite mimicking to this extent but often when watching the tank we'll joke that the clowns swimming around with the wrasses are saying "we're all wrasses, we're all being wrasses, ok, we're done being wrasses" as they go scooting back to their host rock.

Also funny that when anything "scary" happens, like water changes, the wrasses will go to the clowns host spot and huddle with them, then we say the wrasses are saying "we're all being clowns". The clowns never object.

Also, the clowns mimic piranhas when I put my hand in the tank. I've never had a piranha, though, so not sure where they got that. ;Hilarious