"pacing"- good or bad?

[jmaneyapanda]

I was wondering what you all think of fish "pacing" the glass of a tank. I work in a zoological facility, and in most terrestrial animals, pacing is one of the worst mentally neurotic behaviors captive animals can show (aside from self-mutilation), and zookeepers are constantly trying to enrich the animal to break the montonous actions indicative of boredom.
When we see tangs racing back and forth along the tank glass in the predictable pattern, is this bad? Because of my background, I cant help but think it is, but these fish always seem to be some of the healthiest fattest fish I've seen, so they cant be too far off.
On the other hand, I know these animals are metabolically explosive, so the energy must be used somewhere and somehow. Do you think this is a healthy way to vent? If so, do you think it is stimulating mentally for the fish?
How about for more open water fish, which are not reef bound?

 

[eskymick]

In my opinion, it seems that "pacing" is a response to human presence. The associate the human form with food ... i.e. when a human approaches, food appears at the front of the tank. In this case, the "pacing" seems to be a part of the feeding frenzy.

I have mainly kept butterflies and angels ... when I observe the tank from a distance the fish are generally exhibiting their normal behavior of searching the rockwork for food. As soon as I approach, the "pacing" begins.

In the case of tangs and triggers, they like to swim. IMO, the "pacing" is their natural inclination to swim in open water. Since the front of most tanks is where the best open water swimming is, that's where they swim (pace).

 

[jmaneyapanda]

I have seen some fish at public aquariums do this also, and the more I think about it, the more I understand that it is probably just burning some metabolic energy that needs to be burned. But on the same note, I have seen fish that are repeating the same exact pattern! I think this is far too coincidental to be "just swimming". Do you know what I mean?