A most unusual dither fish for kuhli loaches!

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Just thought I'd share an unexpected observation I made fairly recently.

I have noticed that between now and when I got new fish (5 pictus catfish and a 6th black kuhli loach) on Black Friday, there has been a behavior change in all my black kuhli loaches in that they became much more outgoing.
While I can't rule out that this was due to the fact that their school size had been increased from 5 to 6, I think it's probably because the high activity levels of the 5 pictus all around the tank are something they're interpreting as 'everything's safe out here'. They don't associate with each other too much when they're in the open, are often not far from the pictus catfish, and even do the majority of their loach-dancing directly alongside the pictus.
I had expected the multiple pictus to act as clown loach dither fish from Martin Thoene's suggestion - and to be fair, that seems to be the case - but did not expect the kuhlis to see them as a safety indicator. It is, in fact, rather ironic that they did since pictus catfish are fully capable of eating kuhli loaches and therefore have the capability to be the exact opposite of a safety indicator for them.
If I can get any good pictures of the kuhlis doing their loach-dancing with the pictus, I'll share them.

 

[xenacanth9]

Interesting.

 

[cockroach]

^+1

Have you considered that it may be due to the pictus harassing the kuhli's into to scrambling looking for shelter.
I ask this as you mentioned, " It is, in fact, rather ironic that they did since pictus catfish are fully capable of eating kuhli loaches and therefore have the capability to be the exact opposite of a safety indicator for them. "

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I had considered something like that at first (since newly-purchased pictus, being the wild-caught fish they are, have never seen kuhli loaches before and may view them as food).
But it really appears to be normal, non-stress related loach-dancing on account of the fact that the kuhlis don't scramble for the provided shelters within the tank once they finish their dancing. They just drop back onto the substrate and remain in the open while traversing the bottom relatively slowly in the usual exploratory fashion of kuhli loaches (another point that makes me think it is not stress or harassment, since they would be expected to bolt across the tank if that were the case).