OPINION: Do fish have friends?

This is Wallaby, and he molted yesterday. He spent all day in his little log, doing what crustaceans do.


This is Dingo, Wallaby's friend/brother/WhatHaveYou. He molted last night! Unlike Wallaby, Dingo didn't go into a hidey hole, however he's keeping behind a moss ball under our bubble wall.

Wallaby and Dingo usually give each other their space, coming together for a mutual nibble of the moss ball, or stroll along the bubble wall. But now? Now Wallaby isn't leaving Dingo's side.



Now, I may be crazy but here's how this looked to me:
LevI is poking around, sucking up yummy edibles from the ground, but not really paying attention to where he's going. He happened to get too close to Dingo, and Wallaby charged at Levi, causing the giant gold baby to retreat.
I would then swear Wallaby walked up to Dingo AND HUGGED HIM. After the quick embrace, Wallaby went back to his little lookout area, and Dingo went back to nibbling the moss ball.

When looking in the tank, it's not uncommon to see Liz and LevI close together.

Liz seemed VERY distressed when LevI had a rock stuck in his throat. And when we had an earth quake, Liz was terrified, darting back and forth (it lasted a full 40 seconds), and LevI eventually was able to corral her into a corner and they freaking cuddled!!!

Am I insane, or do your fish have friends too?

 

Yes,yes,yes,yes,yes,yes, and I side of YES! Fish have friends! This isn't actually a friendship, more like a stalking situation, but hey, stalkers can be friends to! Hehe just kidding. But I had a male molly(eclipse) and he loved, and I mean LOVED, my female platy. He would never leave her alone, was always with her and was head over tail for her. Unfortunately for me they are both swimming in peace now, Eclipse(AKA Stalker) passed before his love Frylita, which I'm glad about, I couldn't imagine how depressed he'd be. I've had other inter species friendships and very close relationships with between some fish, but can't think of any others right now.

 

Yay! That makes me very happy! I bought Liz and LevI together when they were just tiny little 14 cent feeder fish almost four months ago. Dingo and Wallaby are the two newest. Petco gave them away for free because a patron brought them in to rehome.

 

That's awesome! I love rescuing fish, I seriously hate the feeder fish living conditions. At least at my big box store they a 30-50ish tank divided long side around five times, the fish are just cramped to death. I'm glad you saved them, and now you've got some beautiful fish! Your crawfish(?) are really cool, I love inverts! I wish I could keep them with my bettas, tried that. Betta 1 was sneaky and hunted them, one died, so I figured my other betta might do better, so today I put them in her tank. Nope, she was even worse, just flat out attacking them, bit them hard and I can guarantee of I left them in there probably in an hour they'd be dead... Well I tried, snails are next, oh gosh I hope they'll be ok. So the bettas and shrimp aren't friends, more like enemies... That's really nice they have them to you, glad you got them. Sorry for getting kinda off topic... Also, Welcome to the forum!

 

No, fish don't have friends. Species that are naturally social will spend time together, but they don't have 'friends' in the way we do.