Is your fish smarter than a 5th grader?
- Thread starter BoCoMo
- Start date
Mbunas definitely know when it is feeding time. Especially Pseudotropheus Acel - they are pretty easy to hand-feed. Once, one of them jumped out of the tank when I was trying to feed them... Hmm, so may be that wasn't so clever of them in that particular case. 
Both Julies and Occies recognize the noise when I open the draw below the tank. As soon as I open it, all of them rise to the top of the tank. Since I sometimes need to open it for other reasons, I try to open very slowly to not dissapoint them, but those guys are very sensitive...
Both Julies and Occies recognize the noise when I open the draw below the tank. As soon as I open it, all of them rise to the top of the tank. Since I sometimes need to open it for other reasons, I try to open very slowly to not dissapoint them, but those guys are very sensitive...
Both Julies and Occies recognize the noise when I open the draw below the tank. As soon as I open it, all of them rise to the top of the tank. Since I sometimes need to open it for other reasons, I try to open very slowly to not dissapoint them, but those guys are very sensitive...
That's hilarious!!! Thanks for the post!
I agree about Rams being smart. My smartest fish are my 2 Bolivian Rams. They take a very keen interest in what's going on outside their tanks. They recognize me as the one that feeds them, and they will sit and stare at me until I do, their eyes follow me around the room. When they hear/see a new person in the room, they swim to the glass to greet them.
The Red Dwarf Gourami that I just lost would be at the top of the tank anytime I came around for feeding. I could stick my hand in the tank and he would swim over and rub against my hand. He wouldn't run from the net like the other fish either. He would just slowly swim until I could scoop him. Guess he new the net wasn't going to hurt him...
Queenie is awesome!!!!!! She's huge too, and has a nice set of teeth! She seems to know who is going to feed her too. She is definitely a highlight of, and well worth, the 40 minute drive to get there.
I'll post some more stuff on smart fish later.
Well, I know my male betta definitely does not make the cut. I literally have to point at his food several times for him to find it. "it's right there fishy. No there. See, look, right over your head... no, not over there"
The girls in the betta sorority are a bit smarter, they can actually distinguish between mirror reflections and real fish.
The girls in the betta sorority are a bit smarter, they can actually distinguish between mirror reflections and real fish.
My pearl gourami are the same way with coming to my hand in the tank... but they are always at the top... The Danios I used to have were pretty awesome... they would rub on your hand, freeze if they saw the net, and if they saw the end of the syphon, they'd swim away as fast as they could! Oh, but if there was food, they were the first there. The antics of ghost shrimp can be pretty funny... they usu. can't swim up, only forward and back, but they will swim and push into the tank wall, and use their front legs to "walk" up it, and see how far they get... sometimes they will have races... sometimes two will dance around, as though they are sparring, and at night, they will all go into the same cave, and two, always two, will stand guard at the door. They don't usu. eat algae, but the babies do... if one of them is pregnant (carrying eggs), they will all collect algae and I think they store it somewhere so the babies can eat it, because they don't come out of their cave until they are a bit bigger... I've also heard stories about a lake that ducks would land on, and one would get sucked under... they thought it was a gator, but when they looked, all they could find was a HUGE catfish.
Well at first I thought it was my dwarf gourami, because he would literally spit at flake food stuck on the tank side above the waterlevel to get it down.
And my Leopard ctenopoma certainly looks smart enough, I feel he 'analyzes' me more than any of my other fish.
All my fish tend to come to the front/side of the tank when I'm there. I think they all know who the 'food god' is.
But for out and out smarts in the tank, hands down it would be....
Ya ready for it?
My Marigold Platy!
Hands down the smartest 'social' fish in my tank.
She learned to 'spar' or show aggression from my gourami's (line up parallel to opposing fish and slap tail at it) and uses this teqnique against other fish now to show dominance.
And she finds bottom food faster than any of my other fish. She even holds her own against a much more aggressive Apistogramma Agassiz thats a bit bigger than her. Despite the aggressive fish, she holds her ground and gets that food!
And believe it or not, She Schools with my Praecox (dwarf) rainbows a lot of the time!
I wouldn't have thought a mere platy to be so smart/socially adept... but my one and only in my tank certainly proved me wrong!
And my Leopard ctenopoma certainly looks smart enough, I feel he 'analyzes' me more than any of my other fish.
All my fish tend to come to the front/side of the tank when I'm there. I think they all know who the 'food god' is.
But for out and out smarts in the tank, hands down it would be....
Ya ready for it?
My Marigold Platy!
Hands down the smartest 'social' fish in my tank.
She learned to 'spar' or show aggression from my gourami's (line up parallel to opposing fish and slap tail at it) and uses this teqnique against other fish now to show dominance.
And she finds bottom food faster than any of my other fish. She even holds her own against a much more aggressive Apistogramma Agassiz thats a bit bigger than her. Despite the aggressive fish, she holds her ground and gets that food!
And believe it or not, She Schools with my Praecox (dwarf) rainbows a lot of the time!
I wouldn't have thought a mere platy to be so smart/socially adept... but my one and only in my tank certainly proved me wrong!
