Have you ever wondered...?

[Starry^]

Have you ever wondered whether fish get sick of their lives..?
If they ever get bored and depressed of living the same life inside their glass
bubble?
I just look at my fish sometimes and wonder whether they have the ability to
become depressed..?
What do you think..?



Starry^

 

[DeadlyAlliance]

I wonder about that too. I have a black molly in a 46 gallon tank all byherself and i do wonder if she gets lonely. She swims but butsometimes she looks like she gets bored. Well if she does get lonely she will soon have company from baby black mollies.

 

[Dubby]

And some yummy live food too

 

[CatLover]

I think it's completely possible for fish to get bored and lonely. Why wouldn't they be able to?

A good way to prevent this is to keep friends in there with it (unless it's a fish that demands to be kept alone like a huge predator that can't be kept with its own kind) and regularly change its environment to keep it from getting bored.
They love to explore, and it's great to rip out all the decorations and rearrange them, or add new ones.

Fish need company and healthy mind stimulation just as much as we do.

 

[DeadlyAlliance]

She wont eat the babies they are a month old.

 

[purple_drazi]

I know for a fact my betta was bored.
He had a lovely 2g and a plant all to hisself and for a couple of months he was alert and made bubble nests and you could tell that he thought life was good.
After that though, no more bubble nests, and he got droopy. He wasn't sick (I soaked him in bettamax just in case (figuratively of course!!)) but he just wasn't himself.
I borrowed a girl from a friend, put her bowl beside his and voila!
Sparks flew! He was flaring and back to his old flashy self.
I couldn't keep her but that's when I bought a 12g with a divider, got another male betta and put the boys together. And life was interesting again.
silly bettas

 

[shrimpster97]

^^^thats a great story. i never know when my fish are bored.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Have you ever wondered whether fish get sick of their lives..?
If they ever get bored and depressed of living the same life inside their glass
bubble?
I just look at my fish sometimes and wonder whether they have the ability to
become depressed..?
What do you think..?



Starry^

I think they do. I also think it's good to spice it up a bit sometimes.

Recently I got rid of my pair of s.fryeri, and while doing so we completely destroyed the tank and territory. I kinda put it back together but the rockwork is NOTHING like it was and my frontosa are actually lovin' it. They're happier than I've ever seen them and I think it's because everything looks new to them. So I think regular rotations of territory and such are in order just to keep them entertained.

 

[Apache]

Hmmm.... I've wondered that myself. I don't think things get too boring in our bigger tank, but I wonder if Ferdinand (the male Betta in the 2 gal) gets bored. He loves to "flirt" with me (he has a huge bubble nest built) when I come in the kitchen and I do hold a mirror up for him to flare and posture at, for a few minutes every few days. And I try to change up his tank when I change water...

 

[enchanted]

I think some of it comes down to tank size also. The smaller the tank, the less to explore and the faster they can get bored.

In an article I read on GSP it stated that if they are going up and down the glass they are bored. Within 48 hours after I put them in my 30 gallon this started happening. Since I have moved them the 55 gallon it hasn't happened yet......

 

[jkun17]

When my fish get bored I usually just move some of the plants around. I think they think they're in a new environment and they go nuts.

 

[Dubby]

She wont eat the babies they are a month old.

Awwww... thats no fun then

 

[BobK]

Yeah, I think they get bored too, but I don't think they're smart enough to be aware of it. It probably does stress them so I agree they need company and an interesting, clean environment.

 

[bunjiweb]

Yeh fish certainly do get lonely. Particularly schooling fish. If they dont have friends to copy or emulate, they dont do anything, and are certainly far apart from their natural behaviour.

This is why its always good to keep fish with others, even if they arent the same type of fish. Remember, fish have lateral lines and can sense when other fish are around. This is said to stimulate their behaviour enourmously.

Ben