Cherry Barbs are the smartest schooling fish I've kept...

[Cyberfish]

After watching my cherry barbs a lot more than I usually do, I noticed they behave a lot more intelligently than literally every schooling fish I own. They squabble just like bichirs, and just act less like a single school and more like a group of friends, with one "leader." While I won't say they're the smartest fish, period (ROPEFISH...), they certainly provide competition! Yesterday while feeding them one of the males tried to eat a bloodworm, but the dominant one yoinked it from the other male's mouth. It was hilarious. I'm curious what y'all think about them.

 

[A201]

Who doesn't like Cherry Barbs. Peaceful shoaling & nicely colored.

I think Dawkinsia Barbs might edge the Cherries out in the IQ department with the Black Ruby Barbs a close second.

 

[Mudminnow]

I think gauging the intelligence of another species is difficult to do. I remember reading about some experiments that were designed to measure elephant intelligence, where the elephants initially did quite poorly. Then, when those designing the experiments changed things up so the tests could be approached more from the way elephants would do something (rather than the way people would), the elephants performed very well. Cherry Barbs are significantly more different to people than elephants, so it would probably be even harder to design some sort of intelligence test from their perspective. Therefore, I'm not sure which of my fishes are the smartest, because I'm not sure how to judge.

Nevertheless, one of my Siamese Algae Eaters (SAEs) once did something that struck me as intelligent. Like many of my other fishes, this fish learned to recognize when I was going to feed it and would "dance" around begging for food when the time came. When I was preparing to move, I gave this fish to a local fish shop. After a couple of weeks, just before I moved, I stopped by the shop one last time. The employes knew me, and mentioned that they still had the large SAE I gave them. The shop was fairly busy, with other folks milling about. When I approached the tank with my old SAE, I observed that it ignored the other people in the store. But, when I drew closer to the tank, my old SAE started to do its excited little "dance" again--clearly recognizing me.

 

[A201]

My male Electric Blue Acara & female Salvini Cichlid operate on an intellectual level much higher than the Barbs & Danios.

That's really not saying much. Lol.

 

[mulletmcnasty]

I saw gold fish playing soccer on YouTube, that was impressive.

 

[Cyberfish]

I think gauging the intelligence of another species is difficult to do.

I agree that it might be hard to do exactly, but they're really smart compared to other fish I have, like danios or rasboras. The only fish that really edge it out for me are ropefish, bichirs, some cichlids, some catfish, and bettas. However, none of those fish are really 'schooling fish,' as the way cherry barbs are.

 

[ruud]

I imagine less shy, more interactive species to be considered smarter, because it is easier to project our own thoughts on what is considered intelligent on these more interactive species.

 

[Cyberfish]

I imagine less shy, more interactive species to be considered smarter, because it is a little more easy to project our own thoughts on what is considered intelligent on these more interactive species.

True. I guess cause they're more interactive, they seem to be exploring their world more than aimlessly swimming about.

 

[kallililly1973]

I imagine less shy, more interactive species to be considered smarter, because it is a little more easy to project our own thoughts on what is considered intelligent on these more interactive species.

That’s Deep!!

 

[ruud]

Ask me something about economics, politics, construction or manufacturing, and I'm clueless.

 

[Lucy]

I love these fish, Wish I had kept them sooner. They made a great dither fish for my sparkling gourami when it was the only one left at the time.