shark / fish related question

bleuless

Senior member
Jul 25, 2001
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i was watching discovery last night, and i saw these small fishes sometimes 1 sometimes a few together, they just swim above or under neath the shark near the mouth. they are not tiny, i believe the sharks CAN eat them, but it just chooses not to.

anyone know the reasoning behind it? there are different species of sharks and different small fishes.

 

KLin

Lifer
Feb 29, 2000
29,556
163
106
Originally posted by: bleuless
i was watching discovery last night, and i saw these small fishes sometimes 1 sometimes a few together, they just swim above or under neath the shark near the mouth. they are not tiny, i believe the sharks CAN eat them, but it just chooses not to.

anyone know the reasoning behind it? there are different species of sharks and different small fishes.

I believe they eat things that attach to the sharks. Kind of like those birds that hang out with elephants and eat ticks/bugs from their backs.
 

Ika

Lifer
Mar 22, 2006
14,264
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remora

The relationship between remoras and their hosts is most often taken to be one of commensalism, specifically phoresy. The host they attach to for transport gains nothing from the relationship, but also loses little.

Many sources also suggest that for some remora/host pairings the relationship is closer to mutualism with the remora cleaning bacteria and other parasites from the host.

FoBoT: I thought remoras were the only ones, I guess not :confused:
 

mattocs

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2005
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The relationship between remoras and their hosts is most often taken to be one of commensalism, specifically phoresy. The host they attach to for transport gains nothing from the relationship, but also loses little. The remora benefits by using the host as transport and protection and also feeds on materials dropped by the host. There is some controversy over whether a remora's diet is primarily leftover fragments, or actually the feces of the host.


-From Wiki on Ramora


Edit: Beat to it.
 

FoBoT

No Lifer
Apr 30, 2001
63,082
12
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fobot.com
the OP will have to look at the pics and tell us if they were remoras or pilot fish or something else