Thoughts on smartest saltwater fish
- Thread starter Tripod1404
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PIPSTER
New member
I always find it intriguing to see the fish looking back at you, their eyes moving to keep you in sight. While goldfish may do some antics, they just look plain boring to me. (sorry)
Triggers act like dogs. Their tails seem to wag faster when they see me.
Sea horses act like cats, chasing my hands around the tank until they can curl their tails around one of my fingers. They leave their hitches whenever they see people around and start going back and forth at the front of the tank, eyes moving to keep us in sight.
Coral beauties are purposefully annoying. They go around bugging the other fish, picking at everything, trying to provoke tangs to chase them, trying to eat the clownfish's poop before it's done "going", just obnoxious.
Diamond head sand sifting gobies are amazing with what they do with sand! Mine always makes a "door" every night at the same time in front of his burrow with sand, and then dives through it into his burrow for the night, the sand falling on itself to re-seal the "door".
Triggers act like dogs. Their tails seem to wag faster when they see me.
Sea horses act like cats, chasing my hands around the tank until they can curl their tails around one of my fingers. They leave their hitches whenever they see people around and start going back and forth at the front of the tank, eyes moving to keep us in sight.
Coral beauties are purposefully annoying. They go around bugging the other fish, picking at everything, trying to provoke tangs to chase them, trying to eat the clownfish's poop before it's done "going", just obnoxious.
Diamond head sand sifting gobies are amazing with what they do with sand! Mine always makes a "door" every night at the same time in front of his burrow with sand, and then dives through it into his burrow for the night, the sand falling on itself to re-seal the "door".
rt67ghy
Member
In my experience the algae blenny is the smartest fish alive. If anyone doesn't believe this he'd have to just read the travails I faced with my blenny. I realized how smart he was when I decided to remove my blenny from my tank since he was stealing all the food I fed to my sun corals. I didn't want to tear down my tank to catch him so I decided to trap him. He was so smart it literally took me one year to trap him.
I quickly discovered that trying to catch him with a net was a waste of time even after lights out when he was supposed to be asleep. I fixed a large net to partition one end of the tank leaving the top a few inches under the surface of the water so when he entered this end to graze for food I would be able to trap him by lifting the top of the net above the water. The net was an eyesore but I kept it there for over a month in the hope this was bound to succeed but he never went into that section. I tried using another algae blenny in a trap made out of acryllic and barbecue sticks to tempt him to enter but he avoided it. I then placed a large net (which had fishing lines tied to 4 corners so I could pull it out) the same colour as coralline algae on a large rock that he liked sitting on so I could pull it out when the blenny swam over it. He carefully avoided swimming over the net. At least he never did it in my presence. I baited small fish hooks with food that he would normally steal from my suns. He learnt right at the beginning to avoid the pointed tip and would take the food right off the hook without taking the hook into its mouth. Sometimes he would take the food from the suns and throw it on the sand just to aggravate me. Whenever I would shoo him away from my corals with an acryllic stick he would mock me by sitting on a rock watching me just out of reach. When he would see me divert my attention to other corals he would steal the food from the corals I had just target fed. Eventually I had to make an acryllic box with holes and a lid. Even then whenever I fed the sun corals inside the box which was placed inside the tank it took him 3 weeks to muster the courage to enter the box to go after the food. Needless to say I was ready to shut the lid. I knew that if this time I failed he would never enter the box no matter how hungry he was. My dream to keep a starry blenny evaporated after this experience.
I quickly discovered that trying to catch him with a net was a waste of time even after lights out when he was supposed to be asleep. I fixed a large net to partition one end of the tank leaving the top a few inches under the surface of the water so when he entered this end to graze for food I would be able to trap him by lifting the top of the net above the water. The net was an eyesore but I kept it there for over a month in the hope this was bound to succeed but he never went into that section. I tried using another algae blenny in a trap made out of acryllic and barbecue sticks to tempt him to enter but he avoided it. I then placed a large net (which had fishing lines tied to 4 corners so I could pull it out) the same colour as coralline algae on a large rock that he liked sitting on so I could pull it out when the blenny swam over it. He carefully avoided swimming over the net. At least he never did it in my presence. I baited small fish hooks with food that he would normally steal from my suns. He learnt right at the beginning to avoid the pointed tip and would take the food right off the hook without taking the hook into its mouth. Sometimes he would take the food from the suns and throw it on the sand just to aggravate me. Whenever I would shoo him away from my corals with an acryllic stick he would mock me by sitting on a rock watching me just out of reach. When he would see me divert my attention to other corals he would steal the food from the corals I had just target fed. Eventually I had to make an acryllic box with holes and a lid. Even then whenever I fed the sun corals inside the box which was placed inside the tank it took him 3 weeks to muster the courage to enter the box to go after the food. Needless to say I was ready to shut the lid. I knew that if this time I failed he would never enter the box no matter how hungry he was. My dream to keep a starry blenny evaporated after this experience.
drummerboyevil
New member
I think triggers are up there in intelligence
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karimwassef
Active member
blennies are very smart given their veggie diet, maybe constant fear of predation is as important as being a predator.
PIPSTER
New member
I saw the one they have at the Tulsa Aquarium, he was watching everyone. Reminded me of a triggerfish.:strange:
jlmawp
New member
Not a fish, but my peppermint shrimp constantly surprises me with how smart she is.
Lately, she's been picking on the soft corals a bit. Not harming them, but digging into them looking for food bits. I'll scoot her away with a turkey baster, and she'll come right back as soon as I've left. I then started distracting her with a food pellet. She eats the pellet, then bee-lines straight back to the same coral for continued harassment.
When I do general brine shrimp feeding, she'll swim upside-down and skim the top for bigger chunks. Then she's chill in a safe place for about 5 minutes. After that, she heads immediately for the corners just above the filter where the food tends to swirl and get caught against the glass and builds up. Her final stop is then the sponge of the filter itself to get any bits sucked up from the water column. Always in that order.
She also waits for the hermits or other critters to move towards a piece of food in a hurried fashion, and she'll beat them to it or steal it from them.
She's scared of everyone but me, which is weird, but cool and impressive.
She's becoming too smart for my little tank. She's definitely the boss.
Lately, she's been picking on the soft corals a bit. Not harming them, but digging into them looking for food bits. I'll scoot her away with a turkey baster, and she'll come right back as soon as I've left. I then started distracting her with a food pellet. She eats the pellet, then bee-lines straight back to the same coral for continued harassment.
When I do general brine shrimp feeding, she'll swim upside-down and skim the top for bigger chunks. Then she's chill in a safe place for about 5 minutes. After that, she heads immediately for the corners just above the filter where the food tends to swirl and get caught against the glass and builds up. Her final stop is then the sponge of the filter itself to get any bits sucked up from the water column. Always in that order.
She also waits for the hermits or other critters to move towards a piece of food in a hurried fashion, and she'll beat them to it or steal it from them.
She's scared of everyone but me, which is weird, but cool and impressive.
She's becoming too smart for my little tank. She's definitely the boss.
ReefTeacher
Member
Really? I kept goldfish for about twenty years. My favorites were my blue Oranda and my black long-finned Demekin. I loved them and they were beautiful...but smart? Really? I think they are the dumbest fish around. They would frequently swim into the glass! :lolspin:
ThRoewer
New member
Trigger fish can solve problems to get to food, like for example lift cover plates off a glass jar to get to the urchin inside.
Clownfish can not only remember their mates, but also their environment, and not just for 30 days but for several months.
Hans W Fricke did some interesting experiments with these and published it in a book: Bericht aus dem Riff: E. Verhaltensforscher experimentiert im Meer
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