Let's compare fish personalities.

[Glasstapper]

In your experience, which ones were the most intelligent? Were the most shy and hid a lot?

I haven't been keeping fish for very long, so I will list of the ones I have kept so far:

bleeding heart tetras: playful when you aren't near the tank. they run and hide just when you pass in front, so watching them will have to be from a distance.

corydoras: basically could care less if you're watching them or not. it seems that mine are oblivious to my presence and do their eating and playing and poking around whether my face is 2 inches from the glass or not.

guppies: definitely curious and come and check out whatever I'm doing when I'm near the tank. On occassion, they have even brushed up against my arm while I'm in there doing maintenance.

dwarf gourami: (no longer have these) they really weren't that shy. they just kind of swam right along doing whatever. they would get a little skittish at quick movement, but if you went slow, they didn't care. Didn't really interact with me, though. Just sort of "oh, you're here?"

salvini cichlid: this is my new addition. after a couple of days in my tank it seems that this guy is extremely shy of people. he also hides anytime I come near. He comes out a little when I'm across the room but scrams as soon as I stand to come closer. Also, he mostly just slinks back and forth on the bottom at the back of the tank. A beauty when seen, but that isn't often so far.

I'm curious to know if you guys know any really cool fish that actually like people and could possibly train to hand feed. I've tried with mine, but the guppies are the only ones that even come near me.

[jeffs99dime]

what's up glasstapper! all your pics of your fish AND yourself are very good by the way!:ezpi_wink1:
keyhole cichlids- very, very personable. will swim right up to you even if you make sudden movements. generally hide in my caves at night. these guys even try to swim into the siphon when i'm cleaning the tank and conducting w.c.'s. they make very good tank mates for a variety of fish. non aggressive. (keep in mind, this is my own personal experience with "my fish" NOT ALL KEYHOLES WILL ACT THE SAME WAY!!! ( NOT ALL FISH WILL ACT THE SAME WAY, FOR THAT MATTER. --i just wanted to clarify this for any other members that may not know.)

[Glasstapper]

good call about the difference in each fish's personality, jeff. true, not all of the same species will behave the same. tons of things factor into a personality and that includes water quality, tankmates, etc. For the purpose of this thread, we're just going with general experiences with proper water conditions, healthy fish, and compatible tankmates.

and thanks about the pics! ;)

[jeffs99dime]

sure thing glasstapper!:thumb:

[Drumachine09]

I dont know if anyone else has heard of the austrailian bowfin, but i used to have two of them. They normaly swam at the very top of the water and rarely came down below the surface except to chase falling food bits. They are a very smart fish. They know that it was chow time when ever the hood opened up on my tank. They would also let me hand feed them and touch their head. but sometimes they would nibble and they had some little teeth. i have heard that they can grow upwards of 2 feet, but i had mine for 11 months and they didnt get above 3 inches. Great smart little fish to have though.

[blue fin]

My upside down catfish has only been with me for a little over a week and when doing water changes he has brushed me more than once, swims all over the place and eats the flakes off the water while swimming upside down which seems like an awfully unfair advantage over the other fish... funny as heck though. He doesn't always eat with the other fish though as he is a scavenger.

[kimmers318]

Kuhli loaches....by far the most skittish I have ever had...although getting better with the sand bottom

dwarfpuffers...always watching and following me. I can feed them bloodworms one at a time from a dropper...I have no desire to actually hold/touch a bloodworm :)

White skirt tetras...most aggressive in my tank with other fish.

bolivian ram....most inquisitive with me

sparkling gourami...most inquisitive about the other fish.

Bristlenose pleco.....could care less who/what/where!

[jeffs99dime]

columbian redfin tetra- the fastest fish i've ever owned! try catching these guys in a net-it's almost impossible lol. one of the most colorful fish i've ever owned too, as far as tetras go!

[danthefishman]

I cant beleave no ones said how inteligent a oscar is, by far the tamest fish. They are so glad to see me when i feed them they jump to try and grab food from my hand.

silver dollars and tinfoil barbs are well skitish and you wont ever see a bumblebee catfish if you put one in your tank.

[jeffs99dime]

I cant beleave no ones said how inteligent a oscar is, by far the tamest fish. They are so glad to see me when i feed them they jump to try and grab food from my hand.

you just did! lol

[danthefishman]

True! someone had to mention the poor fella's!

[jeffs99dime]

True! someone had to mention the poor fella's!
lololololol:hmm3grin2orange:

[Cichlid_Man]

Hi Glasstapper

My Electric Yellow Labs will eat from my hand if I feed them something like leaf spinach.

The other cichlids in the tank which are mentioned in my signature are pretty much the "run and hide type" when I go into the room.

Yellow Labs...my favorite by far.

[Ascendant]

Oranda - Ryukin
Oranda, quite a shy breed of goldish, often plays with my Ryukin, but is usually dominated and chased by it.
Oranda is sometimes scared to go up to water surface to eat foods, even when Ryukin is pouncing at the food. Oranda and Ryukin are found always together, and are only on occasion seperated.

Ryukins lust for food usually outeats Orandas, and Ryukin often eats more than he can chew, leaving Oranda hungry. Ryukins body is much larger than Orandas, and he has trouble swimming, and he reminds me of a fat sumo japanese/chinese fish lol.

Both are really nice fish, but extremely hard to maintain. They are considered delicate goldfish, and cost me 4 times each of the amount of a standard goldfish.

Lots of water changes and filtration/oxygenation is needed apparently, with water of extreme hardness. 2x the recommended salt crystals are needed for these two fish according to the local aquarium shop owner.

I change 30% of the water every second day during the fishy cycling period to ensure that toxins are lowered.

[Severus]

Oscars are definitely one of my favorite fish when it comes to personality. I almost have mine eating from my hand and he knows when it is feeding time. He starts going crazy whenever i come into the room. The silver dollars i used to have were very cool as well. They were extremely fast.

[Glasstapper]

The more I hear about oscars, the more I want one. I just don't know if he would be happy in my 45 gallon even if he was all by himself (which I would prefer he have a buddy). I haven't heard one person say an oscar would thrive in anything less than a 55 gallon minimum. :(

I don't guess there's a such thing as a dwarf oscar? I can dream, can't I? LOL

[danthefishman]

It all depends on your filtration, and if you would get a bigger tank in the long run. Which you would because once you have one you wont ever get rid of it. I had two ocars in a 45gal tank from 4cm babies to about 18cm sub adults. They now live in a 70 gal tank and my old tank ive set up as a growing on tank which has three marbled oscar babies about 5cm. Im going to set up a 170gal tank and these little fellas will go in when there about 15cm along with some nice catfish. It would take about 5-6 months for them to grow this big. iI just cant have enough oscars their all indevidual but ive never had one not feed from the hand.They are like a dog in the way they will always swim to the tank to greet you, never away. Hope ive given you some idea of what there like.

Dan

[Sin]

heyy Glasstapper , the most interesting fish i have had was my beautiful baby yellowtailed Barracuda..he was about 7 inches long and i swear i seen the intelligence in his eyes , he would look at me and i would look at him and i knew there was something there , that fish knew something ,almost had a wise expression and seemed to smile at me at times...back then i really did not know about water parameters or anything of the sort and i ended up loseing him within two weeks of having him...it was a shame to lose him , (( i ended giving that barracuda a proper burial fit for a king!)) but i educated myself on proper fish care and another very interesting and very intelligent fish i had were my channel catfishes....when i put one of them into my 125gallon tank and placed alot of bushy plants on the far left side of the tank i swear that channel cat made a nest for himself in there and did not come out for a week....forget about having a daily routine of eating like most normal fish do , this fish just ignored all that and ate when ever he felt like it and came out very seldom...i would see him far deep into the plants with his body resting onto an area that supported him and he would just watch from " his" area what went around him as the other fish swam about , i started to worry about him yet never disturbed him and after the week when i did my water changes i had to rearange the plants he came out and ate some shrimp....then would go back to his area deep into the plants....he would come out only to eat when ever he felt like it and since he was fine by that routine so was i....now he is much bigger and stockyer and has adopted an area that he calls his own on the right side of the tank where i have a few more plants , he will chase any fish out of that area and will stand his ground to protect that area...no fish had better go by there....because he will defend it...he is super tuff and lives his life the way he thinks he should...almost as if he thinks or has reasoning behind his actions....he is my favorite fish indeed!

[Glasstapper]

awesome descriptions, Sin! You speak of your fish as if you truly adore them. It makes me all warm inside. :)

It's just awesome when a fish claims a territory that you set up for them, isn't it? It's like I was a good realtor and the fish was satisfied with it's home. LOL

[Drumachine09]

The more I hear about oscars, the more I want one. I just don't know if he would be happy in my 45 gallon even if he was all by himself (which I would prefer he have a buddy). I haven't heard one person say an oscar would thrive in anything less than a 55 gallon minimum. :(

I don't guess there's a such thing as a dwarf oscar? I can dream, can't I? LOL


Dwarf Oscar, i said the same thing! Great minds???

[Glasstapper]

I guess great minds do think alike. :D

If there were a such thing as dwarf oscars, those things would sell like hotcakes!

[Drumachine09]

Exactly, now how would i go about breeding dwarf oscars, so i can rake in the cash???

[Glasstapper]

years and years and years of selecting only the smallest oscars and hoping they breed. After a few decades, you may have some that are a few inches smaller, like maybe 9 inch oscars.

good luck with that. ;)