I know my fish can see me as well as I can see them, and I've noticed that if I spend some time every day looking at them and moving my mouth and head as if talking, or actually talking, and getting my face and eyes really close to the tank and following them with my face as they move around the tank, that they become much more friendly toward me. My pleco actually comes to the front of the tank when I start making mouthing gestures toward it and the pleco does not associate me with food as the other fish do.
The pleco is about 7 inches long and actually seems to notice when I am looking at him/her as opposed to looking at another fish in the tank. It gets exited and moves in a more animated way.
The gars are even more sensitive to my eyes. They have a black stripe going horizontally though their eyes and it's hard to see the actual eye ball, but when I do focus on the eye ball they seem to realise they've been "spotted" and are not fooling me and they usually come out of whatever hiding place they may have been in if they are in an "ambush" like place.
Anybody else have interactions with their fish like this?
Blimpie never fails to give me the indication that his smaller-than-a-pea sized brain is on par with the ''personality'' and ''intellect'' of many chiclids. I've never dealt with chiclids myself but as I understand it they're very personable fish. My girlfriend and I are entertained and shocked by this little fish almost every day. There's the simple moments when you know all that's on his mind when he see's me from 8 feet away with the tank light off as I walk in from work (no joke) and propels himself up to the glass and waves side to side frantically he's saying 'FEED ME' but that's just the tip of the iceburg. He'll actually watch and inspect my actions when I siphon the tank now, just to make sure I'm doing it right and the same way every time.
Blimbie is a great name for a puffer. I like to see the different temperaments and maybe different levels of human/fish interactions each kind of fish has.
my 3 clowns just kinda do their clown thing unless i get up in the glass then they start doing their clown dances "up" "down" "up "down" and they will follow my finger left, right, up and down ..... i can even drop a pellet or two in there and they stay interacting with me until i back up a little then its a race to the food......Ean, Amillia and Mo are their names .....great litte fish .....and my hermit just wants to kick my ass most of the time................he comes up to the glass and raises the claws as if to let me know that the wet areas are his ......lol
i don't talk to the fish... but i had a flying fox that would love attention... he would chase the other fish away from the glass so he would get all of the looks and swim around all happy...
Yep, I seem to develop relationships with Bettas. They look me right in the eye and follow me carefully. If I really interact, they will sometimes flare and wrap their fins around. Most of them can tell if I'm approaching with food, or without. Some people think it's a creepy relationship with a fish, but it's certainly no worse than dying your poodle pink.
I talk to my fish, and particularly my snail, an awful lot. I watch them for hours, so its natural that I will talk to them, even its as simple as something like "You're a crazy bugger!"
My betta (Joejoe) and my snail (Lewie) are the two I talk to the most. Their tank is right beside my computer screen, so they often get a lot of my attention. Lewie is definitely my favourite animal I own. Snails move and act on a totally different level than fish.
I lost my biggest ramshorn snail last night, but it died saving others, so though I'm sad, I guess I can say it led a good life. It was the sole ramshorn left in my aqua worlds and it gave birth to the population I have now. The sponge filter fell off the canister filter intake in my new hight light planted co2 enriched tank and there was a big open intake that could have sucked in many fish by the time I found it this morning, but the old ramshorn got sucked in and it plugged the pipe. Problem is, the other line going into the filter was a co2 line that goes to a gallon jug full of yeast, sugar, and water. With the main pipe plugged the filter sucked at the co2 container and sucked half a gallon of the mixture into my tank. This morning I woke to a tank full of bubbles smelling like beer! At least everybody was alive and the only death was the poor snail.
Anyhow, I like this topic.
My 100 gallon gar tank is right next to my computer too, and there's always a 12 inch alligator like gar keeping it's eye on me. The other 2 usually are around too, but they're not as focused on waiting for me to feed them as the big one is. It's probably a female, and it wants food now but I'll wait till tomorrow to feed it. I let them have their fill every 2 days and I think that's about right for them.
Heh, it'd be fun to see your gars in person PK. They seem so out-of-this-world, stone-age-ish. Let's hear some accounts from folks with cichlids. I'm sure someone must have some inteteresting Jack Dempseys or Convicts with some attitude and personality. :)
I agree. I have Tilapia which I believe are a bit like cichlids looks and behavior wise. The males and females will dig big holes in the substraight big enough to put a basket ball in down to the bottom of the tank. I got into making mouthing gestures with my first big one and it was fun. My mouthing seemed to put it at ease, and as I started doing this to all my fish I realised that it made all my fish more at ease, I guess a predator doesn't tip it's head and make gestures with it's mouth. A predator will sneak up with no mouth movements till it strikes I guess. Mouthing and head tipping, and following your fish around in the tank in a non-threatening way is a good way to make your fish tame. I guess it makes them see you as a friend and another community fish I think.
I have my 30 gallon tank on the kitchen countertop, and when I enter the room, the herd of fish race back and forth almost yelling out "HEY THERE SHE IS and FEED ME!!!" It is mainly my guppies, platies and mollies that do that. When I leave the room, they try to follow me, like a mama duck. I just got a 125 gallon tank and put it in the living room, and now they don't seem to follow me as much because they are getting used to their big mansion.
it's funny that this topic came up, my discus actually know when it's feeding time, i feed the same time every day, the other times when i am sitting in a kitchen chair right up by the tank they come out and swim up to the glass and study me as if i was the one on display, the puffers love it too, they get their little bodies in between the discus who are 100 times their size lol and watch me for any movement, when i talk to them they seem to recognize that i am talking directly to them, the puppy however gets jealous and comes up to the tank tries to get between me and it. when cleaning the tank i have to be careful not to suck up the puffers because they attack the intake on my siphon....!! ballsy little bastards!! the discus when i am cleaning the tank will come up and lightly brush against my arm or hand, my blue diamond will actually come up and rest against my hand and swim around it like he's putting on a breeding display, he's the biggest in my tank and i am thinking that he associates my hand with another discus as it's about the same size. if i am not careful the puffers will dart out of hiding in the foliage and rip out a strand of arm hair from time to time i shoo them away but then they come back for more, it's a game to them i think more than anything because they aren't afraid of me and aren't acting in a super aggressive manor, they seem to like the game of cat and mouse. when the cats get on top of the tank and lean way over the side and look into the tank the discus and puffers come right up to the spot where the cats are and put on a dominance display and do what i like to call the cichlid shake!! they shutter their body in a fast motion while displaying their whole side to the cats as if to say "hey this is my home bitches and if you think yer gonna have me for a snack you got another thing coming!" lol the cats will actually back away from the glass when this happens because it's such odd behavior for them to see. they all have their own personalities and quirks and i think that's really the bottom line when it comes to fish keeping, if all of the fish were just autonomous i don't think i would have any, they each show diff sides at diff times and it's always interesting to observe.
Brandon
