Hey! what happened to Freddy???

[Magnum Man]

do you prefer fish you can identify "personally" ( doesn't matter weather you really name them or not ), or do you like schools of fish that all look the same, and that you can't really tell them apart??? I have a theory that most prefer fish they can identify... but curious if that's really true ... I think being able to tell an animal apart, makes them more personable to us, having 4 cloned dogs ( or cats ) wouldn't be as special to us, because we couldn't tell them apart, as the same 4 animals with different colors, or spotting patterns... maybe you have fish that look identical, but you can tell them apart by personality... and maybe the cloned animals develop different personalities, by their slightly differing life experiences??? this thread is not about cloning, but more about us, and what we expect, and receive from our various pets... I personally prefer to know, and identify a fish when it dies, or disappears, rather than have a random group of fish, and tomorrow "one" of them is missing...

thoughts???

 

[GaryE]

Here's my weird mentality. A shoal of tetras is an entity. I don't much care about the individuals, but the shoal matters to me. If I lose it, it saddens me. If I start with ten and lose one, it's okay. If I lose more, then I either add back in with available fish, or try to breed it to make the shoal work again.
I have fish that do well to live three years, but which I have maintained as a species here since 1992. Certainly hundreds have lived their healthy lifespans and died, and I've gotten used to that circle of life thing. I take enormous pleasure when they swim out in their tanks, even after all this time. They're fantastic creatures, and I sometimes see all the hard work, planning and thinking that's gone into their still being here.
To me, a lone fish is like a nose running around looking for a face. I mean, that's interesting, but it's also kind of sad and futile.

But I have to be self aware. I got here by keeping fish for just under 60 years, continually. I've been working at breeding my fish for 35 years. I have an entire fishroom with a great number of species in there. I have one elderly dwarf cichlid, the grandfather of the fish in the next tank. He's become kind of a pet.

When I was new to the hobby, I had some fish I still remember well as individuals. They were certainly pets. Sid and Griselda, the Herotilapia cichlids, Scruffy the cory, a never named X variatus that used to swim into my cupped hand underwater, and just sit there. Some of my Steatocranus and large Satanoperca, with their eyes a human can relate to... but I also remember shoals of lampeyes I was able to keep running, or shoals of tetras I'll never see again.

 

[gimme30]

I look at schools the same way GaryE does....the group has a sort of personality as a whole. I'll admit though that an individual fish with heaps of character is as equally interesting to me, so I guess you could say I'm straddling the fence.
I have an affinity for misgurnus anguillicaudatus (dojo, or weather loach) They're not colorful showy fish. In a species-only tank you can't really tell one apart from another. But every single one is curious, bold, playful whether alone or in a group, and mostly harmless to other species. I say mostly because when the barometric pressure changes they go nuts and pinball off tankmates. While they always steal the show, for me, I certainly couldn't pick out Fred from Frank Farrah or Frenchy.

 

[Jamie D.]

I like both, personally. My plecos, angelfish, and yoyo loach are all named, and show unique personalities, and I enjoy them as individuals. If I had room for groups of each, that would be ideal, though realistically not feasible.

But I also very much enjoy my cories, tetras, khulis and cherry barbs both as groups and also certain individuals specifically.

I guess I just like fish.