Smart catfish

[Serrateeth_2002]

IME,catfishes lack personality,is there any catfish that seems to have personality,most of the i see swim aimlessly,eating anything that comes near,if there is any smart catfish out there,it would be great,any suggestions?

[NJ Devils Fan]

What do you mean by "personality"? That's what a catfish does, eat the crap and other stuff that is in the tank. What do you expect them to do?

[mwood322]

I had a needle catfish that would appear if I sat in front of the tank. It was his way of begging for food. He would also grab onto my finger and be pulled around the tank. I rather like my banjo cats too. They are so passive and lazy i have to pick them up so I can clean the tank around them.

--Mia

[JamisonBWolsh]

What?!?!?!?!?! Catfish will not eat CRAP!!! everything else. Try the syd. Petricola Catfish. Max size is 4 inches. There a nice fish. As for intelligence? I dont know. The MOST intelligent fish out there is the Elephant nose (biggest brain to body mass). Alot of the cichlids will come out and let you "pet" them...but that is a learned response to get food. The elephant nose is actually intelligent. Catfish...I dont?

[cacti]

I think people want different things from their catfish. Some like the unusual appearance of the Pleco's, some like the upside down type catfish and some like the normal swimming type of variing sizes. Some like small, some like big, some like huge. They vary so much that it seems there is a catfish for everyones taste. :D

[Darkangel]

My S angelicus have tons of personality. They are in my opinion very smart lively and active. Their home is a 125 with 5 of them in there. They range in size from 6 to 13 inches and are a real joy to watch. And as JamisonBWolsh has said they do not eat crap. They need to be fed a diet specifically for them just like any other fish.

[latazyo]

I don't know if they're considered catfish or not, but I thought that a pair of albino corys I was in contact with were great fish and I enjoyed their presence a lot

[JamisonBWolsh]

cories are catfish... and is fascinating to watch in a school...

[Mattimeo]

The large predatory cats (red tails, TSN's, M. tigrinus, the brachyplatystomas, paulicea sp. etc.) are all pretty responsive. They are every bit as intelligent as cichlids.

Cichlids are very intelligent fish, alot of the quirks they display in captivity are not just learned responses for food, but are actually signs of intelligence.

[JamisonBWolsh]

If you want an intelligent fish...I would suggest the elephant nose. A real interesting fish!

[Mattimeo]

the only mormyrids I'd consider getting would be gymnarchus niloticus (the aba aba) or one of the larger mormyrops sp.

[JamisonBWolsh]

the gymnarchus niloticus are a nice fish!!! I just checked out the picture. I am not sure if the high intelligence is with the whole family or just the elephant nose? several articles I read just mentioned the elephant nose by name. But, yes.. that is one nice fish. I say you should get it! Can I ask why you dont like the family in general?
Max size of the gymnarchus niloticus is 75 inches. No way im ever going to get that. In fact..I dont know what size tank that would even be able to hold that. Unless you can stunt it..thats 6.5 feet!!!

[Pootspete]

I find it quite interesting to find my peppered catfish spend more time at the surface doing the backstroke eating little morsels,then spending time on the ground collecting their food there.

[FishmasteR2002]

Well aquarium catfish aren't to smart, IMO. But I think those 30 lb. catfishes tha are out in lakes and rivers are very smart. They would have to be to live that long to get that big...

[JamisonBWolsh]

How do you rate intelligence in fish? Cichlids defend their territory. Does that make it smarter then a neon that schools? or is it Natural behavior?

Catfish arent smart? Check this out.

Syd Petricola and the multi's- When cichlids (mouthbrooders) lay eggs, the catfish will quickly swim to where the mother layed the eggs and then add its own eggs. When the parent cichlids pick up the eggs, the catfish eggs are included. As time lapses, the catfish eggs hatch first and eats the cichlids eggs as food. When the mother spits out the fry..its not cichlid fry, but catfish! On top of that, the mother cichlids TAKES care of the catfish, not realizing its not her fry. I Dont know about you, but that makes one DUMB cichlid and ONE smart catfish!

[Mattimeo]

Actually, that's the way things are. It's instinct and how things were planned out. In lake tanganyika, the cookoo species of synodontids have naturally fast hatching eggs so that they can outspeed the cichlids in hatching and growth, and thus, prey on the smaller fry while getting 2 well armed, devoted guardian.

Cichlids have a highly developed social structure which would take more intelligence to conduct. Let's assume that their "intelligence" is just instinct or rather, programming. For example, compare cichlids to neons. If cichlids have a wide variety of actions which are conducted in their social structure, it would take much more memory space than would simply the bare essentials and very few added pluses which is what neons have.

[Serrateeth_2002]

Most replies i read says catfish are not very smart like swim around,my featherfin synodontis cruise around,act likes it is territorial,it chases around any black fish near its den,i got a walking catfish and its intelligence is even worse than a goldfish,it eats any thing including fish crap,it collides with anything but its respose to food is much better than an oscar.

[JamisonBWolsh]

I dont think we bought fish so we can blab that our fish is SMART! If you want a smart pet, buy a MONKEE! Otherwise, how can we test the intelligence? I dont think we can....