Is either sturisoma or beaufortia a known mucous feeder?

Baby beaufortia (est. 2 months from hatching) cleaning an adult sturisoma, who seems to be enjoying it.

In my growth tank, I keep a pair of adult sturisomae. Last month I added four small beaufortia fry born in the main tank to the growth tank, and now I observe apparently mucous feeding relationship between them (almost every day up to now). I have added the category while researching for mucous feeding parental care in fish, but still no clue if either of the two species in my tank do it in the wild. BACbKA (talk) 20:28, 6 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Per your request at WP:FISH.

This is really more fitting for an aquarium forum (WP:NOTFORUM) but anyway: Neither of those genera are mucous feeders in the traditional sense. This typically covers species where it is harmless and an actual adaption in the species such as the well-known parent-young relationship in discus. What you're seeing is something entirely different where an opportunistic fast-moving species (Beaufortia) parasitize/predate a comparably slower species (Sturisoma). Although less extreme than lepidophagy or fin biting, it can still result in some harm to the victim and may make it more vulnerable to infections. This is exactly why e.g. suckermouth catfish (Hypostomus, etc) generally shouldn't be kept with river stingrays (Potamotrygon), and Chinese algae eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri) generally shouldn't be kept with slow, relatively big-bodies species like fancy goldfish. There are, as far as I know, no indications that suckermouth catfish or Chinese algae eater do this in the wild, but it is fairly well-known from the more confined space of an aquarium. The same problem can occur when keeping suckermouth catfish (Sturisoma, too) with discus, as the latter are adapted to letting their own juveniles feed for a short period, but not the more sucking and continuous feeding by the catfish.

How much real harm–if any–is done to the Sturisoma by the tiny juvenile Beaufortia is anyone's guess. If this happens regularly, at the very least you should keep a close watch on the Sturisoma for any skin issues. 80.62.116.249 (talk) 05:52, 25 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! BACbKA (talk) 18:09, 11 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]