Yellow-stripe clingfish behavior

[rlpardue]

I picked up a pair of yellow-stripe clingfish (Diademichthys lineatus) a week ago; they're eating frozen food and bbs I hatch for them. The neat thing is that they have all sorts of interesting behaviors.

In the video on photobucket, you can see them "hunting" hermit crabs. They hover around the hermits, then dart in and take a small bite. The hermits are ordinary blue-legged reef hermits. I believe the clingfish are trying to get at the eggs of spawning hermits. (I have no clue how hermits carry eggs though). The behavior is similar to pipefish when they take little nips at the eggs underneath an egg-carrying cleaner shrimp. Anyway, enjoy the video.

http://vid45.photobucket.com/albums/f57/rlpardue/IMG_1090 1_zpsq06awryk.mp4

 

[Chasmodes]

Wow, that is one cool little fish! They don't do a whole lotta clinging, do they? Now there's another fish for my wish list!

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[snorvich]

They are carnivores. They benefit from a commensal relationship with long spined sea urchins.

 

[rlpardue]

Kevin, I like your sig line - I agree blennies rock. There is nothing cooler than a big tank with hordes of tiny fish hopping around. I put 20 green-banded gobies into my 150. I can see 3-4 at any given time lol. Personatus gobies are really cool too. My pair of yellow eyed combtooth blennies were spawning until one jumped through the netting

Hey Steve, I moved a long spined sea urchin into the DT, thinking they would peck at its tube feet a bit, but they pretty much ignored it. They love baby brine shrimp, tiny cyclops, and apparently hermits. They bite a hermit every 5 minutes.

I have some lobster eggs on the way from the EU. Hope they stay fat until then.

 

[Chasmodes]

Kevin, I like your sig line - I agree blennies rock. There is nothing cooler than a big tank with hordes of tiny fish hopping around. I put 20 green-banded gobies into my 150. I can see 3-4 at any given time lol. Personatus gobies are really cool too. My pair of yellow eyed combtooth blennies were spawning until one jumped through the netting

Sorry to hear about your blenny passing away. That stinks. Do you have a video of your entire tank? Tanks like yours would have me sitting and watching, and never sleeping!

Thanks for the sig compliment! :dance:

 

[rlpardue]

Hey Kevin,
I don't have a full-tank video. It would require media skills that I just don't have. Here is another video of the clingfish though. Very sorry for the film algae near the sandbed. I hate stirring it up with the magnet cleaner.

 

[rlpardue]

Hey Kevin, I finally got a halfway decent video. It's only 36 seconds though:
https://goo.gl/photos/ijyPQBLKFd9Kqxj46

 

[rlpardue]

I finally lost the second one of these. One jumped through the netting over the tank several months ago, and now the second one just disappeared. What neat fish! It is incredibly hard to get ahold of healthy, eating specimens.