Many years ago I kept a few fish. My favorite was a Red Devil. He liked to pile his gravel up across the front of the tank, hide behind it and peek over the top at you. If I thought he needed some exercise I would turn his tank around. Just to be honest, I did it for my own amusement because he would switch the gravel again. He would also come up out of the water to take food from my fingers.
02-23-2012, 02:03 AM, (This post was last modified: 02-23-2012, 02:04 AM by Ram.)
(02-23-2012, 01:16 AM)bw Wrote: Many years ago I kept a few fish. My favorite was a Red Devil. He liked to pile his gravel up across the front of the tank, hide behind it and peek over the top at you. If I thought he needed some exercise I would turn his tank around. Just to be honest, I did it for my own amusement because he would switch the gravel again. He would also come up out of the water to take food from my fingers.
That is pretty neat lol.
You should have made a video of him take food from your hand in the air!
My German Blue Rams would dig on the substrate and push them aside to create a shallow hole at the bottom when they need to lay eggs. They supposedly to lay eggs only on big flat surfaces, and they dig because there is no such big flat rock in my fish tank. It was weird the first time I saw both of my German Blue Rams were pushing the substrate at different directions at the same spot in the middle of the tank. Apparently they decide it is not a good spot and moved to a corner behind the tank the next day.
(04-12-2012, 12:36 AM)tdOtjunior Wrote: That is too cute!! You have a beautiful tank. What type of plants are in your tank if you don't mind Me asking.
edit: I forgot I put two videos in this thread
The main plants in the first video were some seeds from Walmart lol. I planted 5~6 of them, only one actually grow. I forgot the name of it, but there were two different packages available at the time. One is the plant with those leaves you see in the first 10 gallon tank video, the other one is the lilly plant in the second video with those red floating leaves. For the lilly plant, one out of the two seeds grew.
In the second tank, there were
Anubias hastifolia,
Anubias Nana,
Java Moss,
Java Fern,
Anacharis,
Cabomba caroliniana,
Cardamine lyrata,
Water Wisteria,
Water Spirit,
Dwarf Baby Tears,
Pellia,
Lloydiella,
Myriophyllum Tuberculatum.
The name of some of the plants are hard to remember. I had to go check.
(04-12-2012, 01:12 AM)tdOtjunior Wrote: Thanks!! It's limited places here to find nice plants they go as soon as the truck arrives lol..I might have to order them online.
I bought most of my plants online too. There is simply a much larger selection online. I even bought most of my fish online. There was no local fish store beside Walmart which sells weak sick fish.
Gourami are known for be able to spit water in the air like an archer fish. It is rare however to have a Gourami keep doing it under the same circumstances. Not easy to recreate it. Most of them will spit water when they feel like it. I have also seen a video where a Gourami spit water to get a piece of food stuck on the side of the glass above the water. Quite neat.
I had a large pearl gourami in my tank years ago. He didn't make the move He was similar, though he never did it constantly.
The two clown loaches I have are the most personable fish I have ever seen. I used to get them snails. You know how allot of stores plant tanks have snails? I would go in and they would give them to me allot of the time. Or I would buy a plant I didn't need and scrape the snails of off it. There is a "popping" noise clowns do sometimes, I think it is a puff of water to dislodge the snail from the glass. They would swim up to the glass and do this when I walked in with the bag. They didn't do it when I fed them their regular brine, mysis, or anything else. Those two knew and got excited when they saw a bag from the fish store.
Though, they did do this when I brought home a clown knife, I assume they recognized the bag. They were never nice to that guy, he only made it a few months.
My Dwarf Gourami developed this behavior when she was about 3 months old. I guess being born at my home had made her extremely human friendly. Home bred fish are easier to interact with.
I had a pair of oscars that would circle my hand, much like a cat does with your legs. It took them a while to learn, but I was able to hold a feeder by the tail and one of the oscars would jump up to get it. I only did that a couple of times because I felt bad for the feeders. But it got to the point where it was harder to clean because they would not leave my hands alone, kept circling and getting in the way. I had those ones for well over 9 years...I think they were about 11? when they died. and something that size is really hard to clean around when they refused to move. there was one feeder that they both let live, and it got to be large too. they became friends with it which I thought was odd. I finally had to give it to a friend that had a pond.
I've also had mutant fairy cichlids. I felt sorry for them because their mouths were really disfigured. I bought both of them and they lived for quite a while. They stayed hidden most of the time, in their lil cave. But they got to know that I was the one bringing food, so they would come out when I walked in the room. They acted like they had never eaten before....much like how my dog acts....
Hand feed fish is indeed fun. That is probably the highest level of interaction with them. You are the first one mention this can cause problem for tank maintenance when the fish associated your hands with food. I'll take a note of them.
No need to feel bad for the feeders. It is the way of life in the wild too. Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat small shrimps. Without this chain, there can be bigger problem. Many large fish keepers feed their fish live fish as food. Even some keepers of smaller fish would feed extra fry to their other fish. You know most fish would eat their own fry. It is the way of life. No need to feel bad about it.
When you mention "mutant fairy cichlids", that sound a lot like blood parrot. It is a crossbreed of several different cichlids species, their mouth can't close either due to deformation.
Most fish can have the habit of associate your presence with food. Since you have to be there to feed them. If the fish tank isn't at a busy location, the fish will follow whoever pass the tank, because they would think it is feeding them when a human show up.
Yep, they have their own little mind.
I know this doesn't really count as a fish but he lives in an aquarium and never leaves the water so I thought I'd mention him here. I hand feed my clawed frog. His food isn't alive so I started off using my fingers to animate the food and make it seem alive and now he just associates my finger with food! I don't know if that can be called a personality trait but it's still pretty cool to see.
(04-26-2012, 03:46 PM)Ram Wrote: My Dwarf Gourami developed this behavior when she was about 3 months old. I guess being born at my home had made her extremely human friendly. Home bred fish are easier to interact with.
Agreed, Ram. We have a lot of Guppies and some Sail Fin Mollies that we've bred from fish we bought at the pet shop. Whenever my husband goes near the tank, they head for wherever he happens to be standing. And when he does a snail patrol, they come and rub against his hands, just like a dog or a cat coming up for a stroke.
Although all the fish come to the tank in expectation of getting fed, it's only the ones we've bred that come for a 'stroke.'
(02-23-2012, 01:16 AM)bw Wrote: Many years ago I kept a few fish. My favorite was a Red Devil. He liked to pile his gravel up across the front of the tank, hide behind it and peek over the top at you. If I thought he needed some exercise I would turn his tank around. Just to be honest, I did it for my own amusement because he would switch the gravel again. He would also come up out of the water to take food from my fingers.
Haha, this is just adorable. I have such a funny mental image of your fish doing this. I had an Oscar Tiger Cichlid who was quite a bully in one of our tanks, but if I introduced anything new into the tank, like a new plant, or had to use the net for something, he would turn over on his side, turn all pale, and check things out. (This behavior is common for them because their eyes are on the side of their heads and it allows them to see their surroundings better when they are uncomfortable or feel threatened). But it was still funny to watch him cower when other times he would try to act all tough.
I'm not sure about personality, but I always felt like my old Beta fish, Bob, was glaring at me. I would look in the tank just to check up on him see how he was doing, and he would stop what he was doing so fast and turn towards me it was freaky. He would move super close to the glass after that and just stare until I left. It was a little funny, but also a tad strange.
I am not sure my fish was much of a people person either, because if anyone else was around he would literally disappear. I don't know if he was hiding in the gravel, or excellent at camouflage, but he managed to make me look very silly when I would go to show my friends my Beta fish and all they saw was an empty tank.
Despite all that he was by far my favorite fish yet.
Hey Roseary, betta fish is known as "dog in a fish's body". They are also a part of the gourami family which this dwarf gourami in the video belongs to. Many owners of betta fish swear that their betta require human attention. It is just normal behavior for you to see him acting like that. They enjoy human company more than most other fish, and they can get bored if they don't get the much needed attention. Not all fish are created equal, so it doesn't apply to all betta. You can call it personality when not every member of the species is acting the same way.
Pretty interesting topic. Our jack dempsey Mr. Drake is one gentle fish even when he have some companions. But I've seen I think a shubunkin that is chaser, he's just around 3 inches but seemed wanting to play with other fish on their tank. That belongs to my close friend here, whenever someone is close to the tank, he goes crazy for food which agitate also other fish.
Yeah, I think there are indeed fishes with some sort of interesting personality as well. They may not be like cats or dogs which are fully expressive, but you would definitely be able to see some reactions that are rather unique from them. My gold fish would always move with me whenever i move around the aquarium. If I sway, I would notice that it would imitate almost the same kind of movement.
What about oscars? I've never had one because I could never afford the set-up but, when I was first reading about fish everyone seemed to talk about how big the personalities were of oscars. Isn't a blue dempsey an oscar? They're so pretty! I'm not very knowledgeable about fish, so sorry if that's a silly question.
When I went to the aquarium store that has the outdoor ponds and such, they also have the goldfish and Koi there. the koi are very expensive, so i would probably only get goldfish when we get a pond made out in the yard, but even the goldfish seem to be very interactive with people.
I had a friend with a koi pond, and his fish would come right up when he and his wife went out to feed, or even just look at the fish. They put their faces right out of the water looking for a treat.
When I was little, there was a large pond, just out of town, and it was full of goldfish, some of them very large ones. They were colorful, and some had the wavy tails and were very beautiful.
We caught a few and had them outside in a large tank, and they were a lot of fun to look at and feed.
I am looking forward to making a small pond in the yard this summer, and having some fish again.
We don't have aquariums set up right now. But when we did, we saw personalities shown by Oscar's for sure! Black Molly's also did, as well as a puffer, lionfish, yes, Jack Dempsey's, clown fish, and the seahorses. Seahorses have those incredible big eyes and they seem telepathic, seriously!
Those are just the ones I can remember the most. But honestly, pretty much all the fish took notice of us, not just in fear like you would think.
I LOVED having both salt and fresh. Hubby was the expert, not I. After pursing this thread, thanks by the way, I have said fish have personalities for years. I would like have him put some up again.
08-18-2014, 07:47 AM, (This post was last modified: 08-18-2014, 07:51 AM by tess pfeif.)
Clownfish! They are a great saltwater fish. They act a lot like my actual dogs. When they hear footsteps/door opening they start getting excited and go towards the front of the tank. They also have realized that they can beg food and often "follow me around" as best they can in their tank. They tend to be very curious as well, as long as they feel secure. They are so sweet and playful, not to mention beautiful to watch!
(08-18-2014, 07:47 AM)tess pfeif Wrote: Clownfish! They are a great saltwater fish. They act a lot like my actual dogs. When they hear footsteps/door opening they start getting excited and go towards the front of the tank. They also have realized that they can beg food and often "follow me around" as best they can in their tank. They tend to be very curious as well, as long as they feel secure. They are so sweet and playful, not to mention beautiful to watch!
A lot of fish species will follow you as you pass the fish tank. It happens more often when the fish is underfed and do not get as much attention on a regular basis. They got used to feeding routine, which is being fed most of the time when someone goes near their tank. As a result, they expect food when you walk by their tank. It is the reason why they follow you.
(08-18-2014, 01:11 PM)Thor Wrote: They got used to feeding routine, which is being fed most of the time when someone goes near their tank. As a result, they expect food when you walk by their tank. It is the reason why they follow you.
This would make sense if they clustered toward the top of the tank when I was feeding, but they seem to playfully follow me. Even after they have just been fed, so while the feeding might have something to do with (perhaps even a large part!) I think it may have gone a little bit beyond that. Maybe I am being a bit optimistic, though. Perhaps they have developed a feeding response and the associate me and the stimuli of me moving around the tank with food. I know clownfish (and most fish) are opportunistic feeders in nature, and perhaps this is just a (cute) side effect.
On a slightly random note...
I have read recently that some cichlids are aggressive and will move quickly back and forth in front of their territory. My friends even bump up against the tank if you get close enough, though they usually relax once they realize food is coming.
I guess my ultimate question would be--do you see this as personality or instinct? Are the ways clown fish and cichlids respond to food/people stimuli just part of nature or is it a mix of nature and personality (which might explain why some cichlids are very aggressive and some are relaxed compared to others).
He was similar, though he never did it constantly.
They are also a part of the gourami family which this dwarf gourami in the video belongs to. Many owners of betta fish swear that their betta require human attention. It is just normal behavior for you to see him acting like that. They enjoy human company more than most other fish, and they can get bored if they don't get the much needed attention. Not all fish are created equal, so it doesn't apply to all betta. You can call it personality when not every member of the species is acting the same way.
