Mouth-to-mouth rivalrySourced
A kissing fish’s gesture can be a form of aggression
Kissing gouramis, native to Southeast Asia, extend their mouths and press them together. The gesture supplied their name, but is interpreted as ritualised aggression between members of the same species. Their toothed lips also scrape algae from surfaces.
A familiar-looking gesture need not have a familiar meaning.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Kissing gourami · Wikimedia contributors
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Reviewed: 2026-10-10