Freshwater 'Cleaner' Fish

[Wyld-Fyre]

At my local LFS a couple days back, in the the Bala/Silver Shark tank, I had noticed one shark with what looked like a light 'sore' patch on its underside. I really felt for this poor fish, even though it didn't seem to be suffering.

As I kept watching, on occassion, I noticed the fish swimming vertically, rather than the usual horizontal position, whenever this other smaller shark swam close. Then, to my amazement, noticed the smaller shark attempting to 'clean' the affected area, and that the bigger was positioning itself to be cleaned.

What a nice little fish! This only extends my liking of this type of fish.

This got me thinking. Are there any types of freshwater cleaner fish?

 

[nutter]

I dont know but that shark sounds cool!

 

[ger87410]

Is there a type of fish that will clean another fish? No. U do have inverts and plecos and the such that will clean the tank though. Not the fish. I've never heard of that happening.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

I think these type of fish only occur in marine habitats. In particular, in coral reefs, where there a lot of 'big' fishes who rely on the smaller to rid themselves of parasites. There aren't as many 'big' fishes in normal freshwater environments for this 'market' to exist.

Still it was nice to see the big shark allowing itself to be cleaned by the smaller. Still again, I had to ask to know if there were any.

Thanks for your replies.