What fish can you pet?

[Acolin]

I saw some Pacu related freshwater fish that clearly liked to pet; returning again and again for the gentle caress of the pet shop employee. She said certain fish even had favorites: one fish would only let the owner pet it, while another let anybody pet it.

Ok, so the question is, excluding Piranha and Lionfish as obvious untouchables, what commonly available home tropical freshwater or marine fish (not in public aquariums) have you pet or seen petted or know about being petted?

 

[Anemone]

[moved]

Kevin

 

[Pandora]

Actually, lionfish are not in that totally "untouchables" group. They are only poisonous at the tips of their fin rays. The tops of their heads are not... and I used to have a lion that was extremely tame and would let me pet it on the top of its head (surface of the water, was totally safe so long as you kept to that area; the fin rays were over half a foot away). Someone else was telling a similar story.

There are a lot of other fish that can grow tame by conditioning them to come close to your hand during feedings, like clowns. Don't know what the big deal with petting some slimy fish is, personally.

 

[LaDonaDorada]

my Oc. clown comes up to the top of the tank and will let you pet him/her. also have a friend with some figure eight puffers in a brackish tank that you can pet. kewl liitle guys they are

 

[REV]

Dead ones... Knock knock...

 

[Kabong]

Ive heard of some triggers that like to be petted.
course ive also heard of them loling you into a false sence of security so you'll get your hand close enough to bite it.

In my personal exp I had a green clown goby who if i cupped my hand in the water he whould come and sit in it. (made it real easy to transfer from tank to tank on occasion)

 

[The steven liu]

There is a petting tank in the Underwater adventure at Mall of America in the Twin Cities. The sting rays there can be petted, I am not sure if they like that but they will pulse their swimming and let you pet them for a few seconds before moving on.

 

[LaDonaDorada]

last summer at the toledo zoo i lucked out and got to see the behind the scene and at the end the staffer let me pet a kind of play with the giant octi. she had arms about4 1/2 feet long. that was realy neat

 

[Acolin]

cool, but what commonly available home tropical freshwater or marine fish (not in public aquariums) have you pet or seen petted or know about being petted?

 

[DC321]

Puffers.

 

[crazyfingersmike]

I can "pet" my clownfish, and my cleaner shrimp has no fear of my hand either. Both swim right up to my hand and allow me to touch them. The shrimp jumps on for a free ride

 

[Pandora]

I'm not a big fan of doing this on a regular basis, since it can take off some of their slime coat and expose them to the stuff you carry on your fingers. That being said, I did think it was neat that back when I had an octopus, it was very curious and would often wrap its tentacles around my fingers when I cleaned the tank (never hurt me, and would gently take shrimp from my fingers).

 

[Mikeeal]

My S&S's puffer would let me pet him, but one time I caressed him a little too much, and he nipped me. He didn't hurt me, just letting me know, "hey, watch it dude" He was about 8 inches.

My Oscars also loved to play around, roll over to get their belly pet, and play with a ping pong ball.

 

[docmenace]

My Naso Tang, she swims right into my hand.......

 

[Shooter9er]

my longhorn cowfish was like a dog! He would lay in my hand and take food right out of the other.

 

[steelreef]

I have heard of people teaching a blenny to sit in their hand.

 

[Cutiewitbooty]

Oscars really seems to like being pet. Mine would let me pet him and would even rool onto his side to be pet. I never had to used a net because he would swim up into my hand and lay onto his side. He wouldn't even move when i lifed him out of the water. I also had 4 piranhas that didn't really let me pet them, but i could tap their nose and they never tried to bit me. As for saltwaer fish i had a maroon clown that would let me pet it's head and a LM blenny that would chew on my finger

 

[rockindacheeks]

i had a neon cleaner goby that loved to sit in my hand... if i were cleaning the tank he would swim up and sit there. i could cup my hand and he would sit there and let me pet him with my thumb.

 

[JimR]

Oscars are well known as the "Puppy" of aquariums.

 

[goodblasson]

My cleaner shrimp wont leave me alone when I put my hand in the tank. He immediately swims to my hand or crawls up my arm. He often tries to clean my hand. Im not advocating petting livestock. My brother has a flower horn thats about a foot long and has a hump on his head the size of a base ball, he loves to be petted, mainly by the hand who feeds him.