Fish swimming round my legs

[Kerry]

I bought a barb from the pet shop. I think it's a silver barb but I may be wrong - it's silver with orange fins and tail ,and is about 15cm long.

Anyway, whenever I go into the pond this fish comes up to me and starts swimming in circles around and in between my legs. If I move to a different part of the pond it follows me and carries on swimming round my legs. I'm just curious as to why it does this (I find it quite sweet , although occasionally I've accidentally 'kicked' it!!).

Is it just being friendly/curious, or is it asking for food, or is it something entirely different?

 

[koiguy1969]

my fish, (both koi and goldfish varieties) always flock around my legs when i enter my pond..with the fry i had loads of the little guys kissing my legs. (trying to eat the hair on my legs i think, they may think its string algea or some sort of vegetation). but yeah it really tickles when enough of them get going..

 

[Joe]

Our fish do the same thing. They will follow us as we move around the pond. When we had a batch of baby goldfish they would do just as koiguy said. We called it getting groomed. I think I saw where they have places in beauty parlors where you put your feet in and a certain kind of carp eats all the dead skin off. Must be something similar.