Anyone ever tried "petting" thier fish?

[toungetwster]

K...now I know people will think this is crazy; but, my "yellow" tang" has taken to being petted...(scratched/rubbed) with my feeding wand! Everytime I put the wand in the tank to feed some silversides to my brain, plate, and bubble, she/he comes up and stops wanting me to rub her/his side with the wand! I've never seen this happen in saltwater! I did have a huge "black mor" that used to let me scratch his belly but that was a long time ago!

I think the tang is in "love" or just in need of some good ol fashion attention. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Yes; the tang comes every single time I put the wand in the water! My wife has started asking me to just put the wand in to see if he comes. Yep; even empty; he's ready for a "belly rub"!

 

[DrBDC]

I let the cleaner shrimp "clean" my hand. And I hand feed my foxface now. That just started in the last couple weeks and it kind of makes me nervous. My lion would let me touch it but I'm not going there it's bad enough with the foxface. I used to have an oscar that would let me rub between it's eyes and really seemed to enjoy getting petted.

 

[Chelsey]

I had a clownfish that would pet me whenever I stuck my hand in the tank. I read somewhere that petting fish removes the slime coating that keeps them healthy, so I don't try to pet my fish in case this is true...don't wanna kill my fish with kindness! :lol:

 

[chadfarmer]

they have a sailfin tang in the coral tank at marine solutions the short one that will let you pet it

 

[Dert42]

i let my cleaner shrimp clean my fingers. he seems to like it.
the srgt. majors eat out of my fingers, and i've only had them like 2 weeks.

 

[fkdenton]

Trottman was able to pet a lionfish a while back. My cleaners like to clean my hands to. When I put my hand near them one will get on the top of my hand and the other one the bottom.

 

[eahkmh]

That sailfin at MS is awesome. If i had a big enough tank he would have been mine already. I let me get a quick pet in last week.

 

[beapeams]

My naso eats out of my hands, and my cleaner shrimp try to clean me as does my cleaner wrasse. My clown just swats at my hand. I use to have a puffer that would let me touch it and would eat from my hand (puffer did not make it, possible lesson learned for petting). My Moorish Idol I had would also eat from my hand. My Foxface eats occasionally from my hand. I only hold the seawead left in the clip that they cant get to all other foods I put in tank and let them go.

 

[Fade]

I can pet my ornge sholder and my vlaminguy.