My Bettas / Can my Betta recognize me?

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azurajae

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Hey y'all! I'm a happy owner of three bettas, but I've noticed something really interesting. This is more of a trivia question than anything, but I'd love to know because I couldn't find much about it online.

I have three Bettas: Puyo, Bonbon, and Isola. I live in a 4+ family but I'm the only one who cares for them. My other family members sometime comes to look at them occasionally but I've noticed something weird/cool/interesting. Bonbon's always been a little more of an angry boy then the rest (and the biggest), but he always flares up when he sees my mother, my dogs, or other people, but he's never done that to me. When I come close to the tank, they always approach the tank (probably because they know it's food time and pre-emptively come to the surface). Do they recognize me as a person? Like how maybe dogs recognize their human?

I know for sure they know me as the magical food god that rains down food and the one that will occasionally stick a giant scary gravel cleaner to get angry at, but I find it weird how they always usually flare at everyone else but me.

Also something interesting I do, I usually feed my bettas by using a toothpick, dipping it in their aquarium water and using the water to sticky a few pellets on the top (so I can control how much I give them). I've accidentally trained Puyo (who I've had for over half a year now) to follow the toothpick in the water xD Puyo always rushes to the surface upon seeing the toothpick and will always follow it around. The other two don't, which makes me believe that Puyo is pretty smart compared to the other two.

Anyways here's pictures of them! Puyo is really lazy and loves squeezing himself into any hole he can find so he was sorta easy to photo. Isola is the same, but he likes to take his time to swim around. Bonbon is usually the same as Isola, but was running laps around the aquarium as if he knew I was taking a picture of him and wanted to make it as difficult as possible, but he's a good boy most of the time (maybe he just didn't like my phone xD). So forgive me that Bonbon's picture is really blurry. Puyo is in a 15g tank and Bonbon/Isola are in 10g tanks! No tankmates for the long run; did try cherry shrimp with Puyo once but he ate them all :(.

puyo.jpg
isola.jpg
bonbon.JPG


I just wanted to talk about my Bettas because I really do enjoy them (I once stared at them for an hour just enjoying their presence) because anytime I bring this up in normal conversation with non-fishkeepers they kinda don't really get it.
 
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I think? my tetras recognize when I'm gonna feed them, like, when I open the lid, etc. i think they can recognize you. It's probably like how cats know their name but don't come to it, I think.


there so pretty!
 
I hope they do recognize me! At least, just as the 'feeder' at least xD Puyo's tank is actually at my desk where I work so I'm directly within his line of sight for a lot of the day. He sometimes comes and stares at me through the corner of the tank, or maybe just looking around I'm not sure. I'd like to think he's curious about what I'm doing.
 
I'm convinced my betta can recognize me. I think it has more to do with size difference, but they definitely react differently when I come to the tank, vs when my kids do.
I’ve read that Bettas do recognise their owners and can be trained to do simple tricks such as jumping through hoops and pushing a floating ball into a goal!!
My Betta, Blue, always comes to the front of the tank and interacts with me (especially begging for food ?)...
 
I am fully convinced that some of my fish recognize me. In particular the Gourami, the Angels, and my two female Bettas. The tetras not so much.
 
I am fully convinced that some of my fish recognize me. In particular the Gourami, the Angels, and my two female Bettas. The tetras not so much.
I get that vibe too! All my Bettas seem to recognize me, but my tetras only seem to understand when the lid is open and food is going to rain down from the sky xD
 
When I am in front of my tiger barb tank, they all get very active in anticipation of their next meal.
 
Do they recognize me as a person? Like how maybe dogs recognize their human?
Yes, fish can and do recognize individual people.

I had a heap of people living in my house years ago and my fish ignored most of them. Most of my tanks were in the lounge room and people walked past them all the time. The fish swam around doing their bit when people were there but never begged for food. However, when they saw my bedroom door open, or saw me coming down the hall from the front of the house, they would swim to the corner/ side of the tank that was closest to me. As I walked past the tanks, they would swim along next to me and wait for me to give them something to eat. This occurred at any time of day or night, regardless of if the fish were fed.

I had other people feed my fish over the years and when they put food in the tank, the fish would swim away and wait for the people to move back before the fish would eat. Some of the fish wouldn't even eat food given to them by a couple of people in the house. The fish would just ignore the food regardless of if the person stood near the tank or left the room and peered around the corner.

So yes, fish can identify their owners/ feeders, and differentiate between individual people.
 

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