Freshwater fish with the most personality and intelligence

[fish-n-chips]

Besides my betta and angel, my betta is a freaking nutcase BTW and I love him for it, I had an African butterfly fish that had a lot of character. He would always come out when it was feeding time beggindg for his food and liked to play in the outlet of my canister filter. He would swim to the flow at the spray bar and let the current take it to the front of the glass, down to the bottom of the tank and then swim back up to the spray bar.....repeat for 5-10 minutes. Plus they are REALLY cool looking fish.

 

[Concy]

My Oscars let me know when they want to be fed, and definitely pay attention to everything happening in the room, that is when they aren't nipping at each other. And no huge surprise here but my RES Turtle reacts to everything, and will eat out of my hand. I am going to try some safe toys for my Oscars, they may enjoy them

I noticed my Frontosas love to dig caves, and clean the bottom of the tank of gravel so it is a mirror finish in certain spots under rocks and such.

I really love the personalities of fish and if I can get more fish that specially react, that would be awesome, although it may be how much attention is paid to see what reacts to what.

 

[Ptrick125]

crayfish (not shrimp) are pretty awesome. they will decorate the tank as they want and they have a lot of spunk. mine will vome right up to the front of the tank eith its claws raised. i bet he would play with a toy if i put one in with him.

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I've seen my crayfish do that too


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[lesleyx]

My elephant nose has personality, he comes up to see me when I'm at the tank, gets hand fed & when my hand is in the tank he swims around it he lets me stroke his side love him!

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[ColleenT]

i love to watch Shrimp. But i don't buy my fish for their intelligence. i have 5 dogs and horse if i want animal interaction.. i want my fish to relax and to just live their fishy lives without interacting with me. i enjoy watching them in their natural-ish state

 

[Glabe]

I always hated oscars until i got stuck with 2. I always saw them as the pitbulls of aquariums because of attitude and stereotypical trash owners. but i fell in love with the two i got. they were so aware, responsive, and curious of me. They'd jump out of the water for food or let me pet them for a short while. They were raised with other SA cichlids since they were juvies, and they quickly outgrew their tankmates, but there was nothing mean about them toward anything. I'm sure they even said a silent prayer for the feeders, crickets, and shrimp they ate.

My school of tiger barbs had tons of collective personality, but i'm sure it was just the type of personality that is imagined in the aquarist's head... so it may or may not count. it was entertaining to watch them follow the new 4 inch catfish everywhere around the tank. never nipping, just staying inches behind. Then the poor catfish just stuck himself in the java moss and refused to come out... had to return him, and eventually they even started harassing the BN pleco... adorable!

Here's a low qual vid of them on shrimp night! fighting over a single shrimp because the only important shrimp is the shrimp to which everyone else is paying attention. The gourami hunts like Dory in Finding Nemo...