Do Your Fish Greet You?

[pandaq]

Is it just my imagination or do fish actually greet you?

My fish know when it's feeding time...ive fed them the same time every day so they know when it's time to eat, but I've noticed at any time of day when I get close to the tank, they follow me. If I am in the front of the tank they will all come up to my face and swim around and if I move to the other side of the tank they will ALL follow me.

I think it's funny! I've been testing my theory that they "know" me, and every time I put my face close to the tank they all immediately come out and look right at me. If I move quickly to the other side, they all follow. There's only 6 of them so far, but this just tickles me to death!

Who says fish aren't loyal pets? LOL.

Okay, am I just crazy or has anyone else experienced this?

This is all new to me and I'm just getting a kick out of all of it

 

[Verminator89]

Certain fish, some more so than others are referred to as "wet pets". Sounds quite cheesy, but its true in every sense of the word. Oscars are known to be the most "dog" like with their character. Mine certainly relentlessly swims at the glass begging for food, then happily chomps on my finger mistaking it for food during maintenance.

What fish do you have?

 

[stoneagedinosaur]

My gouramis come to the tank when I walk past and follow me. My glowlight tetras race up at feeding time

 

[fluttermoth]

You're not crazy! My oscar, my tiger barbs and my angels all beg for food as soon as they see me. I use an old white plasic tea strainer for draining frozen food, and the angels get extra excited when they see me pick it up (they live in the kitchen).

I used to live in a house where I had a 4 foot fish tank in the hallway, and the tiger barbs and neons I kept at the time would follow me as I walked from the living room to the kitchen. People used to joke about my 'trained fish'

 

[pandaq]

Certain fish, some more so than others are referred to as "wet pets". Sounds quite cheesy, but its true in every sense of the word. Oscars are known to be the most "dog" like with their character. Mine certainly relentlessly swims at the glass begging for food, then happily chomps on my finger mistaking it for food during maintenance.

What fish do you have?

So far I only have 2 gold dust mollies and 4 Phantom tetras, they do "beg" in the morning ( i feed once a day), they know it's feeding time, but the past few days they've been following me every time I go to the tank, I imagine they are begging for food, but I highly doubt they are starving, they look pretty fat and happy to me. LOL

THey are still pretty small and aren't one of the more "personable" types of fish, but I SWEAR they each have individual personalities, it's fun to watch them interact! The tetras all look almost the same, but I can tell them apart by the way they act.

I'm seriously really getting hooked on fish keeping...no pun intended

 

[Carlovel1]

My SAE, Angelfish, Chocolate Gouramis and Congo Tetras always greet me. My Angelfish get really excited when they see me, they leap out of the water

 

[Uriel]

My recently adopted oscars start circling the top of the tank ready for feeding if i get near it. But they also flare at my brother, which is odd. But i wonder if it's because they share a room but he never feeds them. They seem to strop when i do a water change too but that might just be my imagination.

 

[hughessomefish]

My guppys sometimes do rush to the tank when I turn my lights on in the morning but thats not always the case.

 

[fluttermoth]

They seem to strop when i do a water change too but that might just be my imagination.

I bet it's not your imagination! My oscar hates having his water changed; he sinks to the bottom and lies on his side until I finish

 

[JoshuaA]

My Bolivian Ram!! Boy oh boy does that give me a greeting, I'm still amazed at how it reacts to me. I feel we have some sort special bond after I was cleaning the tank out (changing from sand to gravel + tropica substrate) I had to remove all the fish into a temporary tank (a 60l heated laundry bucket). I netted most of my fish without any problem into the bucket. Up comes the ram thinking this is going to be quite awkward, I put my hand in to try and usher him into a corner... he swims towards my hand... he swims inside my hand... he stays there... I move my hand up... he doesn't move? I gracefully picked him out of the water and place him into the bucket and opened my hand up... he literally no joke turned around and looked up at me then just swam off under the wood I had placed in there. The same happened when I went to put him back into the tank, I put my hand in the bucket and he no joke swam into my hand and stopped I just moved him by hand into the tank.

Everyday since that time I will come home from a week or two away from home I walk up my fish tank day or night and where ever the ram is he will come up right to the front of the tank and follow my head. If I duck under tank (looking like an idiot) He goes down as far as he can, If I stand up he goes up as much as he can. He quite happily sits there sideways watching what I do. Sometimes its a bit scary when I'm typing something up on the laptop at 1/2 in the morning and I look up to see him starring at me with his big eyes.

Honestly such a lovely fish with such an amazing personality, my other fish and mostly the tetra I believe only "greet me" because they know feeding time will be coming soon and start to gather in the normal corner. My ram however will do this at any time and usually refuses to eat at the same time as the fish do.

 

[Oscar Betta]

My platys and gouramis always come to the top when I open the lid.

 

[fluttermoth]

... I put my hand in to try and usher him into a corner... he swims towards my hand... he swims inside my hand... he stays there... I move my hand up... he doesn't move? I gracefully picked him out of the water and place him into the bucket and opened my hand up... he literally no joke turned around and looked up at me then just swam off under the wood I had placed in there. The same happened when I went to put him back into the tank, I put my hand in the bucket and he no joke swam into my hand and stopped I just moved him by hand into the tank.

My ex used to have a huge common plec that would swim into his hands to be picked up

(that wub is for the plec, btw, not the ex )

 

[moochy13]

i notice a difference between fish wanting food and fish actually coming to see YOU. all my fish go mental when i lift the lid, as they associate it with food. however only my angel, blue rams and apisto comes to the tank if im just looking at it. im confident its not a coincidence they're all 'cichlids' either.

 

[star4]

I have a large plec (Jethro) that is a fuss pot, he loves being stroked and will sometimes stick to my arm when I am doing a wc. 2 of my oscars "die" aswell during a wc, the other one doesnt he headbuts my hand, trys to steel the syphon and is just a general blooming pest I have a severum that will do somersaults at feed time (Vinny ) he will hover in the tank right next to me when I am sitting on the sofa, its almost like he is sitting on my shoulder

 

[Littlemonkey]

Not only do the majority greet me and move with me. They dance with me aswell, My other half was just about to order the white van with men in strange coats for me when I proved it to him, It was Fade to Grey and I was having a little jig when we both looked at the tank and the fish were moving with me. I must admit it was mainly the cichlids aswell. But I have also found that the cichlids are prone to sulks.