petting zoo inside a tank?

[reef tank 2.0]

I was reading a thread on here about fish interaction with humans and was surprised when i read that fish allow themselves to be pet/scratched by human hands.......

that blew my mind. Fish like to be pet/scratched??!! how awesome is that?!

so with that, how many of you pet your fish and or scratch them?

and what kind of fish do you have that allows you to do so?

 

[CedzAquAddictio]

My sailfin, Scarus Parrot, and just about all of my wrasses let me do it. The wrasses actually act like they want me to do it...

 

[lifeoffaith]

I think with a little work, I could get my clowns to let me "pet" them.

 

[Bent]

when I had my big FOWLR I had a porky puffer and a blue spot argus grouper that would let me pet them. They were like dogs.

 

[billdogg]

Hannibal, my 4' Gymnothorax Undulatus would come to the surface and stretch himself out after feeding. It would really freak out friends/family to see me stick my hands in there with him. Before feeding, you couldn't make me try it. I like my fingers too much.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

that is awesome.......so from the sounds of it, the BIGGER fish in the BIGGER tanks are the "friendliest"

 

[reef tank 2.0]

are snowflake eels friendly?

 

[lilyep125]

I had a friend with a HUGE puffer that liked to be pet

 

[ozmedic80]

where if I put my hand anywhere near my clowns I get tagged....

I think that they dont like me target feed their anemone. But having said that, the female will come up at feeding time and poke her head out of the water.

 

[3dees]

the only fish that will allow me to touch it is my one spot foxface, but lets be real, I'm not that stupid.

 

[hotelbravo]

are snowflake eels friendly?

i love my snowflake eel its very active, and even shares holes with my firefish sometimes its kinda fun to see them both sticking there heads out. however I will not dare to pet it. it nips things to see if its food. when i put the feeding tongs in the tank it does bite around until it finds the food. their eyesight is poor. they smell food and hone in on it. so im nervous when i clean the tank and the eel comes out and see's my hand and starts inching over to it. im not sure if this is accurate but ive heard their bite can infect since it has bacteria in the saliva.

 

[Mackenze]

My emerald crab loves to climb on my hand. At first hed get into his fighting pose and attempt to battle my finger, but now he reaches for my finger every time, climbs on top and just looks down at everything while I hand him a pellet food. So im pretty sure he trusts me lol

 

[Sk8r]

Koi. Freshwater fish. They're hedonists, and love to rub against each other, rocks, or the hand that feeds them, total blissout.

 

[Morfishlee]

I had a pair of GSMs in my last tank 5 years ago that loved to be pet. The female would rub against my finger like a cat does your leg. I miss them.

 

[kmbyrnes]

All my FOWLR fish eat out of my ( and my granddaughter's ) hand. I can pet my Naso Tang, Flagfin Angel and Koran Angel. Not always, but we just started training them.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

GSM's? what is that

 

[Bent]

Green spotted mandarins?

Or
Gross Smelly Moms, take your pick. Though Im not sure I would want one running against my fingers like a cat. That's just me though, not here to judge.