Fish with personalities

[domino1804]

Hi there
Im looking to change over my tank and want to keep a fish or two that have been known to have personalities.
Somethins that you can develop a bonding with.
Im looking into convicts at the moment but im having trouble getting my hands on one.
Can anyone suggest any of fish simlar to this?
my tank is 24inch long/18inch high and 12inch wide

Thank you

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

All fish have personality! Are you after fish that are more likely to interact with you? Alot of the fish like that are more than likely to outgrow your tank, things such as oscars, red devils, midas, flowerhorns and the like.

All fish will interact with you to a certain degree, just some more than others. But off the top of my head I cant think of any cichlid that would interact with you in such ways that doesnt get above 8". Sorry, Im sure someone else will be able to help out tho.

 

[nc_nutcase]

Smaller things are typically more afraid of larger things…

If we accept that as the norm (understanding there are exceptions), larger fish will be more likely to become accustom to you and therefore interactive. My Oscars were terrified of my hand in the tank when they were tiny, became comfortable as they grew, and are now actually beginning to attempt to show signs of dominance over my hand (as they have recently become slightly larger than my hand).

One thing that I have learned over years, is that the better we house our fish, the more personality they display. Think about it this way, when you are bored in your room by yourself, someone watching you won’t see much of your personality. Yet when you have ample space to play and are with people you feel comfortable with, someone watching will see a much different side of you.

I would say with a 20-30 Gal aquarium your best shot would be with some of the dwarves. I doubt they would have the personal interaction with you that you seem to be looking for, but they will display personality and are compatible with the aquarium you have available. Three are many available and I have little experience with any of them, so I’ll leave my suggestion at that.

 

[Fishy411]

rainbow cichlids. Min ewill start following me around anytime i walk into the room. gets to 5"

 

[freddyk]

Did you mean personality with the owners, or personalities amongst each other?

 

[nc_nutcase]

Related Note -

I’ve ‘trained’ a couple Oscars to take food from my hands. At first I thought this was the cutest thing in the world. But then as time went on every time I went to do tank maintenance, they assumed there was good in my hands and started to get a little bit nippier than I’m comfortable with a 12 inch fish being… Oscars may not have teeth but if your finger gets to those grinding plates they do have they can tear you up pretty good. The end result… I don’t hand feed my fish and my fingers thank me for it….

 

[Synirr]

Related Note -

I’ve ‘trained’ a couple Oscars to take food from my hands. At first I thought this was the cutest thing in the world. But then as time went on every time I went to do tank maintenance, they assumed there was good in my hands and started to get a little bit nippier than I’m comfortable with a 12 inch fish being… Oscars may not have teeth but if your finger gets to those grinding plates they do have they can tear you up pretty good. The end result… I don’t hand feed my fish and my fingers thank me for it….

Haha, I did the exact same thing... They can hurt too, even without teeth!! My oscar bit me right behind the cuticle of my fingernail the other day and I still have a little bruise

 

[ecto1]

My oscar knew who I was, and was able to differentiate me between other people.

My angels know who I am, and when I go to feed them, they come to the surface and you can hear the snap of the water when they close their mouths around a morsel of food.

As for non-cichlids (non-freshwater fish at that), my clown fish know who I am, and also come to the surface when I feed them. They have a very different way of swimming, and for anyone who has never seen it, even if you are not interested in keeping clowns, at least go watch these fish swim about for a while - at first, I was amazed!

 

[FrAnK3333]

My oscar knew who I was, and was able to differentiate me between other people.

My angels know who I am, and when I go to feed them, they come to the surface and you can hear the snap of the water when they close their mouths around a morsel of food.

As for non-cichlids (non-freshwater fish at that), my clown fish know who I am, and also come to the surface when I feed them. They have a very different way of swimming, and for anyone who has never seen it, even if you are not interested in keeping clowns, at least go watch these fish swim about for a while - at first, I was amazed!

Clowns do swim cool.

 

[Seb R]

Well my male apisto always comes to say hi when i'm around, and I can feed him by hand without fear of eaten fingers lol

 

[ecto1]

I got a new oscar about a week ago, and for the first few days, he hid under the rocks in his tank. I took him on as sort of a mercy pet, he was the smallest oscar in the tank at the LFS and he was getting beaten up pretty badly.

Now that he's out and about, I can enjoy his gorgeous coloring. He already knows me!

 

[CFC]

If you want a really owner responsive fish then forget Cichlids all together, THE most responsive fish i have yet to come across is a Electric catfish. My E-cat has 100x more personality than my oscar or any other Cichlid i have kept, the moment i even look in its direction it will start swimming up and down against the front glass and sticking its head out of the water to push its whiskers out of the tank through the tiny gap in the lid. It loves to be hand fed and will sulk if i just drop the food into the tank by going and sticking his head into a hollow fake rock and not eating the food for a few minutes and will bite the algea scraper when i clean the tank and gently try to pull it out of my hand like a game of tug of war.
One will need a bigger tank than a 24" and they cant be kept with any other fish but if i could only ever keep one fish for the rest of my life it would be a E-cat, they're like having a small aquatic dog in the house.

 

[Big Rob]

Personally, in all my years of fishkeeping, I've found oscars to be the most "pet like". Although, as mentioned with the E-Cat, you're tank wouldn't be big enough.