People Underestimate How Social Fish Are

[Wraithen]

I didn't realize the extent of social behavior in fish until I went to a local reservoir to catch some shrimp to add to my puffer tank in hopes that the puffer wouldn't eat them and that they would help control the algae growth in the tank. My sister came along with me and caught some fish which we thought were guppies but turned out to be mosquito fish. I ended up dropping a small one into the puffer tank to see if it would eat it, but I was pretty surprised my puffer wasn't as aggressive as I thought it would be. I thought I had a monster on my hands because whenever it came to food it would go nuts. The fish is a dwarf puffer, btw.

Anyhow I dropped another bigger mosquito fish in there because the small one seemed so scared and the bigger one was constantly chasing around this other one in the bucket I was keeping them in. Now they both live in my puffer tank and behave just like my puffer do. They aren't scared of me and if they see me they come to me for food. It's funny because now they even eat worms before my puffer can get to them so I sometimes have to feed the puffer alone.

My puffer never ate dried blood worms, but after seeing the mosquito fish eat them, it sometimes eats them. Though half the time it does spit them back out, sometimes it actually eats them instead of ignoring it like it did before.

In comparison, the mosquito fish I put into a cube tank I had sitting around are scared of me, never head to the food I give them, unless they happen to see it and even then seem really wary and jumpy. The only things in that tank are the mosquito fish, shrimp, and snails. They are so different compared to the ones in my puffer tank and the thing is the fish learned from each other right away, like after one day of being together. Here I was thinking fish were mindless and stupid, but I never really thought they could be intelligent with individual personalities. It honestly kind of baffles me as to why there are no real social laws in place regarding fish. Keep a dog in a small kennel its whole life and people would curse you out and some extremists might even want to kill you, but people stick fish into a 5 gallon tank with 10 other fish and think that since they aren't showing signs of illness and look healthy that they are happy.

You're seeing survival traits, not what you are imagining. The puffer didn't recognize blood worms as food until something else ate it. The mosquito fish with him think there's no danger because the puffer can't even act in a way that they recognize as a fear response. The other mosquito fish don't have anything to act as a dither, so they assume everything is trying to eat them still. They can kind of learn, so a fun experiment may be to put the other 2 mosquito fish with the pack, and see if the behavior of the school changes.

 

[eustoma01]

You're seeing survival traits, not what you are imagining. The puffer didn't recognize blood worms as food until something else ate it. The mosquito fish with him think there's no danger because the puffer can't even act in a way that they recognize as a fear response. The other mosquito fish don't have anything to act as a dither, so they assume everything is trying to eat them still. They can kind of learn, so a fun experiment may be to put the other 2 mosquito fish with the pack, and see if the behavior of the school changes.

Sure, but the truth is they learned from each other and changed their behavior based on that. I'm not saying the puffer took the mosquito fish aside and told them what was happening in the tank or anything. It's just that fish aren't really seen as intelligent creatures at all especially with that lie about goldfish only have a memory span of a few seconds being "common knowledge". I kept fish before when I was young but I never noticed anything like that. Fish were always ignorant of me or scared of me and I wouldn't ever have thought they recognized me or knew I was the one feeding them, etc. But owning a dwarf puffer changed all of that, and seeing both fish change their behavior after observing each other had me kind of amazed at how smart these creatures actually are.

 

[CMB]

Sure, but the truth is they learned from each other and changed their behavior based on that. I'm not saying the puffer took the mosquito fish aside and told them what was happening in the tank or anything. It's just that fish aren't really seen as intelligent creatures at all especially with that lie about goldfish only have a memory span of a few seconds being "common knowledge". I kept fish before when I was young but I never noticed anything like that. Fish were always ignorant of me or scared of me and I wouldn't ever have thought they recognized me or knew I was the one feeding them, etc. But owning a dwarf puffer changed all of that, and seeing both fish change their behavior after observing each other had me kind of amazed at how smart these creatures actually are.

Yeah, I have seen fish learn from each other all the time, it's kind of amazing. For instance, I had a trio of peacock gudgeons that I quarantined for a month in a 20 gallon tank. They were really picky eaters and would only accept frozen foods. I was worried that when I put them in the main tank, they wouldn't get enough food when I gave everyone else pellet food, but within a few days of being with the other fish, they would eat anything. I've also found that once one fish figures out what feeding time is, the others are quick to learn what it is as well. I also think that it's astounding that small, supposedly shy fish can learn to come up and beg for food. I mean, I am a large creature, they should view me as a predator, but they all quickly learn that I am just the friendly source of food.

 

[angelcraze]

I was also nervous about moving my blue rams in QT to the community tank with angels and tetras. I thought the angels would steal all the food since the rams were timid, but it didn't take long before they were eating out my fingers with the angels.

The only thing I make sure to do is provide a bunch of larger pellets floating for the angels and release a bit of smaller pellets under the water so they sink slowly.

One of the newer angels also taught the others that picking at stargrass and ripping it out is a fun game. Now I can't keep it in that tank!

Just reminded me of how fish interact and learn together, I find it fascinating as well!