Cardinals as "cleaner fish"?

[Condor]

I recently read an article about cardinal tetras and discus that described cardinals as cleaner fish in their natural environment, cleaning nasty "bugs" off of other fish, discus included. Has anyone observed/heard of this behavior?

Adrian

[Condor]

Here's the article if you're interested. Its a pdf file though....

http://www.marcweissco.com/watermarc/Vol8_Aug2001.pdf#search='marc%20weiss%20discus'

[RyanH]

I have a school of 40-50 cardinals in my 150 with about a dozen wilds. IME, they avoid the Discus like a plague. Their behavior could be much different in their natural habitat though.

-Ryan

[ronrca]

The article doesnt really indicate that this is a fact, just asks the questions that perhaps they do play a role in this due to what he experienced. I have noticed tetras in general nipping at my arms when Im cleaning however to the point of a 'cleaner' fish, not sure Id go that far.....yet! Tetras pretty much will nip at anything be it the hairs on my arm to whatever else they find however have not seen them doing the same to other fish. Perhaps its just their nature to be continously searching for food. In any event, the article was interesting to read. Isnt Marc a member here at simply?

[shalu]

I have a school of 40-50 cardinals in my 150 with about a dozen wilds. IME, they avoid the Discus like a plague.
Same here, I have about 30 cardinals in my 100g with a bunch of discus. They very timidly try to steal some food from discus feeding area, they look quite comical when they do that.

[Condor]

The article doesnt really indicate that this is a fact, just asks the questions that perhaps they do play a role in this due to what he experienced. I have noticed tetras in general nipping at my arms when Im cleaning however to the point of a 'cleaner' fish, not sure Id go that far.....yet! Tetras pretty much will nip at anything be it the hairs on my arm to whatever else they find however have not seen them doing the same to other fish. Perhaps its just their nature to be continously searching for food. In any event, the article was interesting to read. Isnt Marc a member here at simply?

My bad. :D Didnt mean to portray as fact or misrepresent. Thanks for the input guys. The whole concept is intruiging to me.

[Jason]

I think its possible in the wild, may not be cardinal tetras but another type of oportunistic little fish. I'm sure in the wild there would be more parasites and symbiotic bugs on the discus in a wild enviroment/eco-system.

[JMArtist]

I don't know about this...my discus ate the cardinals....:confused: