Fish Personality

[CAAIndie]

What fish do you have that has the most "personality"? Personality could be smarts, or sheer entertainment value.

[GaryE]

I don't like "tame" - fish that beg too much get sold off quickly. I like creatures that register me as interesting, but really stay in their own worlds. Early on in my Cichlid keeping, I had a pair of Archocentrus (used to be Herotilapia) multispinosa (lemon or rainbow cichlids) that were a riot. They had a big tank beside my computer and I got the idea they were interested in my struggles with DOS (it was a while ago). They did bum food and wiggled at the glass a lot, but they still had dignity. Their curiosity was evident though.
I named them, something I never do. They were Sid and Griselda. They weren't the prettiest Cichlids, but they were energetic, hyper, genial and above all, curious. When they weren't breeding (they were busy then), they would hang around in the plants and rocks and watch me a lot. They weren't nervous or wary, they were just watching me like I watched them.
I had them for five years, and was sorry when old age took them out. About two years ago I saw some nice multispinosa in a store and picked up a pair. While they are pleasant, lively fish I enjoy, they have never shown the curiosity, or 'personality', Sid and Griselda did.
It could be me - maybe I am less inclined to project human characteristics onto creatures that don't care if humans even exist, but I don't think so. People exist with a wide range of intelligences, and so do the sharper fish out there. I tend to think Sid and Griselda were smart multispinosa. Experiments have shown some species of fish can count, communicate efficiently, and can differentiate between individuals. But some individual fish are smarter than others, as we'd expect.
Those two were smart (and were probably siblings) and my current pair are just nice.
So Sid and Griselda, a pair of curious goofs, were my favourite personality fish.

There are also "species personalities". My mollies don't show a whole lot of individuality and live in a constantly active, swirling world of sex, eating, sex and showing off. But as a group, they have an amazing character to watch. They are a non stop spectacle, with young growing up and taking on various roles, older fish parading, and everyone going full tilt all the time. You have to have more than ten of them in their own tank to see that, but it is fun.
The best collective personality I've seen is Neolamprlogus brichardi, a fish everyone should keep at least once. They build enormous colonies with babies caring for babies, caring for babies - it is a spectacle of great beauty. But as individuals, they don't stick out.

[Biulu]

When it comes to personality, the best fish I have kept (not that many) are bettas. Also very curious fish that watch you and seem to say: hey what are you up to? Bettas are the only fish I give a name and only the outstanding ones.

[JayB]

I would have to say the ones with with the most "personality" that I kept were my sailfin mollies. Interactive with me? Most definitely (constantly rushing to the glass whenever I appeared, eager waggling their butts like puppies, etc.) but all this was as a group. One of the most entertaining things to watch was the males displaying for the females in hopes of being the "chosen one". The other was young males challenging the alpha male in the tank in hopes of becoming the dominant male.

As for smarts, when the alpha male was busy chasing off a male (to protect his harem), other males would take the opportunity to try to get a quick hit in with the females while he was distracted. I often wondered if this might be a coordinated team effort among the lesser males after all the alpha male could only chase off one other male at a time. Regardless, it was very entertaining to watch.

The other entertaining thing to observe was when a large female had enough with a pesky young male constantly chasing her. A large female would in this case sometimes actually body slam a small male and send him to the other end of the tank. No actual harm done, but at least he would get the message that she wasn't interested in his advances. He'd give up the chase and focus on anther female. 

Entertaining? Most definitely.

[goldfishbetalover]

oh my! what an interesting question!
Our fancy goldfish Rose is definitely in charge!
She comes swimming over to see us and is quite social....
she shares a 75 gallon with Micah (a telscope fancy...think that is what you call it) and Oscar (a black moore)....she bosses them about and LOVES to eat!!!!
When it is feeding time she is always ready...we have to warn Oscar and Micah to get in there before she eats everything! They are all such a joy to watch!!
One of our male Betta's Leemin literally lifts his head out of the tank when I feed him!
Matilda the little female Betta we recently acquired is very sweet...she always knows when we are in the room and swims over extremely quickly to see us! Quite a cute little personality....
I won't go through all of them!
It seems we learn and identify new things about each of their little personalities each day!
They are truly such a joy to have in our home!

[Shell]

I will start by saying that I believe all of my fish have personality! I spend a great deal of time watching them, and learning about them. When talking about individual personality, a few of my fish come to mind.

Padrick, our weather loach, being one. My husband describes him as goofy   He is constantly swimming with the barbs, and often chasing the barbs! During feeding, he literally attacks my hand! He truly is quite the character. Furthermore, when anyone approaches the tank, he is front and center staring at you. And to say that he is clumsy would be an understatement. Although, all of the weather loaches seem to be a bit clumsy, Padrick seems to bump into everything, including the moss ball and all of the other fish. I just love him to bits. Butterfly, the loach that we recently lost, would of course be at the top of the list for personality plus. Butterfly was the most adorable little guy, always snuggling up in my hand, no fear of human contact whatsoever, in fact he seemed to thrive on it....

With our black skirts, I'll have to say that Laurel and Peanut have wonderful personalities. Laurel has been battling dropsy, and she has shown us much strength. Peanut, however, has also shown much strength in that she is always swimming close to Laurel. We have noticed this behaviour more and more since Laurel began showing symptoms. Peanut seems to follow Laurel, not chasing, just staying close by.  We also noticed recently that, during feeding, peanut allows Laurel to eat before she does, she just swims next to her, as if to block others from getting food - which I think is amazing! I am not sure about the real reason for this, but I like to think that the reason has to do with caring and compassion, something existing in their world

[Sbenson11]

I have two fish that I would consider having real personilaty,

Tigger my largest Koi is a real ham, my wife can hand feed him, but not me for some reason. If she's not careful he will grab a finger hoping it's food. Everyone around him knows he is in charge and to stay out of his way. On times it seems the rest of the fish are waiting for him to start eating first so they can eat.

Boso is our Clown Tang, he is a real bully and a chicken at the same time. He will push other fish out of his way to get to the food and chase others away from his space. However go near the tank and try and do work on it and he runs and hides. He's going to be a big boy, he was the size of a quarter last Spring when we go him and now he's about 6" long. They top out at about 15". I will try and get a picture of him in the next day of so. So far all attempts have failed as he is so fast.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+43+340&pcatid=340

Steve