"Interactiv" fish

[Velvetgun]

Most fish live thinking only about what happens in the aquarium.
Others are shy and any movement outside the aquarium makes them hide.
Others are curious and seem to participate in life outside the tank.
The most well-known are certainly the Oscar fish (Astronotus ocellatus) and the Blood Parrot.
What are the other "interactive" fish for you?
Some talk about Bettas, Angel fish, Barbs tetrazone, is that true?
Many say that they are mainly cichlids.
What do you think? Which species are in this category for you?
And which are the most shy?

 

[Magnum Man]

these guys would be easy to train... if I put my hand in the tank for 15 seconds, they come check me out...

Panda Garras

 

[Magnum Man]

My Amazon puffer comes to the front begging when it sees me, also my electric blue Acaras do the same

 

[MaloK]

For me it was Comet Goldfish. Closest thing to an aquatic dog I know.

They made loud claps with their mouth at the surface when begging for food. I could pet them and tickle their bellies, they would become all excited and race around the pool to come back to my hand. They also loved playing with ping-pong balls and where bringing it back to me so I could trow it again. They would also splash water at you to get your attention.

I started to get nervous with them as they became quite large and cut my hands more than once. Then they started to jump in my arms when I came, close because they where "happy" to see me.

I loved these 3 musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. But at the end before I relocate them. They where scaring me. Loll.

 

[Velvetgun]

also my electric blue Acaras do the same

I love electric blue acara !! I will definitely have Acara in the future

 

[Velvetgun]

For me it was Comet Goldfish. Closest thing to an aquatic dog I know.

They made loud claps with their mouth at the surface when begging for food. I could pet them and tickle their bellies, they would become all excited and race around the pool to come back to my hand. They also loved playing with ping-pong balls and where bringing it back to me so I could trow it again. They would also splash water at you to get your attention.

I started to get nervous with them as they became quite large and cut my hands more than once. Then they started to jump in my arms when I came, close because they where "happy" to see me.

I loved these 3 musketeers, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. But at the end before I relocate them. They where scaring me. Loll.

interesting! did you feed them food from your hands? did they cut you by biting? How many liters did you have?

 

[MaloK]

interesting! did you feed them food from your hands? did they cut you by biting? How many liters did you have?

Yes I was always feeding them by hand, the cuts came from their fins, when they where doing quick movement.

The swimming pool was flat on concrete 18' x 36', so around 60,000 liters.

 

[GaryE]

Most interactive fish are predators. They survey the room outside the tank as they survey what is in it, and if something moves, they react.

They often have social structures, and many can recognize individuals. That can extend to humans.

Social fish that aren't especially predatory also react outside the tank if vision is their way of interacting with the world. We may be ultraviolet or weird colours to them, but they see us and react. Once they understand they get food when they see us, they even find us interesting. We don't get the same response from fish who use smell, vibration, electricity or chemistry to understand the world.

Garra are cleaners, and cleaner fish are hyper aware of the larger fish they pick parasites off. If they approach the wrong fish, their life is over. The right fish gets them a good meal.

So we see behaviour based on nature, but it can be fun in the aquarium.

 

[Velvetgun]

Most interactive fish are predators. They survey the room outside the tank as they survey what is in it, and if something moves, they react.

They often have social structures, and many can recognize individuals. That can extend to humans.

Social fish that aren't especially predatory also react outside the tank if vision is their way of interacting with the world. We may be ultraviolet or weird colours to them, but they see us and react. Once they understand they get food when they see us, they even find us interesting. We don't get the same response from fish who use smell, vibration, electricity or chemistry to understand the world.

Garra are cleaners, and cleaner fish are hyper aware of the larger fish they pick parasites off. If they approach the wrong fish, their life is over. The right fish gets them a good meal.

So we see behaviour based on nature, but it can be fun in the aquarium.

thank you so much for this interesting analysis! I imagined something like this on predators. I found difficult to understand the other types of fish

 

[GaryE]

I also think some fish have what some aquarists have - curiosity.

 

[powerdyne6]

My Yoyo Loaches are quite interactive.. they follow my from one side of the tank to the other and are always out when I am around.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

My angelfish definitely interact with me. They appear to be very curious about goings on, and when I'm in the tank they always want to know what I'm up to. This seems true of many members of the cichlid clan, and many predatory fish in general, as Gary described above.

They aren't fish, but my frogs definitely are figuring out that I'm where the food comes from. As soon as they see me appear, they cruise over to the island from wherever they are to see if there's a cricket or fruit fly. I've also learned that they don't like sugar ants. They'll ignore the ant while devouring the flies right next to it.

 

[jaylach]

I totally agree with Panda Gara being friendly and interactive. Rope fish can be easily trained for hand feeding and, one I had, would weave in and out of my fingers. Some cichlids also seem interactive. In fact my pair of SA smiling dwarfs show interest in my bird and he shows interest in them.

Interaction between cichlids and bird. This won pet of the month a while back...

Panda Gara on hand.

Ropes are just cool! Miniature sea serpents.

 

[MaloK]

You don't interact with Cichilds...

They, interact with you.

 

[jaylach]

There is actually another benefit with Panda Garra that seems to not be generally known. Other than their friendliness and apparent total lack of fear they one of the few species of fish that are totally happy to snack down on black beard algae. Downside is that they are quite sensitive to nitrates. A level of 20PPM of nitrates can kill them. If I can ever manage to re-home my cichlids I'll go with just my rope and 4-6 Pandas. Until I get rid of the cichlids I can't have Pandas as the cichlids will kill them. The Pandas are just so fearless that they are an easy mark for a predator.