Discus Intellignece

[xxfoxmtbxx]

I have read that the discus are very smart fish and are very loving. That they watch you move around the room and some even are attracted to the movement on a television. Not only that but that they will eat food right out of your hand when they become comfortable around you.

This sounds alittle far fetched to me is any of this true or is it just a myth?

[markwill]

I have read that the discus are very smart fish and are very loving. That they watch you move around the room and some even are attracted to the movement on a television. Not only that but that they will eat food right out of your hand when they become comfortable around you.

This sounds alittle far fetched to me is any of this true or is it just a myth?
I think it depends on the program. Mine like current affairs :-)

On a slightly more serious note, I don't have anything to compare with but my guess is that most on this forum will look for reasons to think that discus are more intelligent than the average fish. Perhaps related to the thing about people being like their pets :-) This would suggest mine are pretty dumb!

I must say I was pleasantly surprised how quickly my discus got used to movement equating to upcoming food. But I have absolutely no reason to believe many other fish wouldn't do the same.

I have to say that when my sick fish was in a hospital tank (bare bottom) for a couple of weeks recently, I did wonder how he coped with the boredom (lack of stimulation) that he'd find in my show tank with other fish.

Compared to my cats they are incredibly stupid! :-)

Mark

[blaze]

I think mine are smarter than I am...I make the mistakes , they don't

[PaintballFan07]

my discus are still skitish when i make sudden movements n sumtimes i dont even move or look at them at all n they just freak out. I have had them for almost a year so i am not sure y they are still acting like this. I have one discus that i think has no personality at all.

[markwill]

my discus are still skitish when i make sudden movements n sumtimes i dont even move or look at them at all n they just freak out. I have had them for almost a year so i am not sure y they are still acting like this. I have one discus that i think has no personality at all.
Not sure how that relates to intelligence - I know some pretty intelligent people who have absolutely no personality either :-)

Mark

[ValorG]

a lot of what people might think of as intellegence is just conditioning. basically its a cause and effect. most low level animals can do this that arent necesarily intellegent.

[Giniel]

My fish know when it is feeding time and when it is play time . Also when it is time for tank cleaning as they follow my hand around rubbing against me. I can pick them up with my hand or just pet them while in the water.

Fun to watch not too sure how healthy it is for them ,but so far so good.No health problems from touching them.
Debbie

[KIWI13]

I would say instincts more than intelligence. intelligence is the power to reason. Discus like most cichlids have a character :)

Jas ;)

[Jeckel]

Of course, intelligence can be defined in various ways, but I think of it as the ability to learn from experience, "figure out" what to do in new situations, conceptualize in a somewhat abstract manner, etc. I think most people would agree that discus, like all cichlids, show more intelligence that many other types of fish. For example, I once had three discus in a tank. Two paired off and started laying eggs. Naturally, whenever they had eggs they chased the third fish away from the part of the tank where the eggs were. But pretty soon the third fish learned that they would leave their post when I put food in the tank. As soon as I fed them, he would dash over and start gobbling eggs. I guess he thought discus caviar was better than whatever other kind of food was available.

[KIWI13]

I still say instinct but hey I am known to be wrong. LOL

Jas :D

[diskboy]

mine know when i stand up in front of the tank that there is something up they even stay at the top till i put the hood down

[Cosmo]

About a year ago, I did a large WC, only thing I can think of is the city had dumped a ton of chlorine and/or chloramines just before and before the tank was done filling they all looked like they weren't gonna make it more than a few more minutes :( Whatever it was, it was related to the WC.

Took about a month to get them back to their healthy/happy selves, but then for at least a month after that they freaked out every time the syphon tube entered the tank (they had previously ignored it)..

No doubt in my mind they had associated the tube with the water of death and kept that association in memory for awhile. Is this an indication of intelligence?

Jim

[drayman86]

I'd like to quote an old college professor of mine who was an expert in animal behavior:

"If you take a close look at the disucs, you'll notice there's not a lot of space between those eyes."

:D

[Jeckel]

Here's an anecdote about some non-discus fish I had:

I once had a blue ram and a pearl gourami in a tank together. Although the ram was much smaller, he established himself as the boss and picked on the gourami, especially at feeding time. This went on for several months.

One morning, I looked in the tank and saw the gourami dashing about with his fins erect, obviously excited about something. I couldn't find the ram, then saw him hiding in the plants. Obviously, the pecking order had suddenly changed. Whenever the gourami managed to find the ram, he went for the little fish like a guided missile. In human terms, his behavior would be interpreted as: I've been putting up with getting chased for months, and I DIDN'T HAVE TO??? He was really trying to kill that little SOB.

What impressed me was that the gourami continued looking for the ram even when he couldn't see him. Maybe he could smell him, but I doubt it. The tank was well-planted, and the gourami showed no ability to locate the ram except by sight. This means that he could remember what was going on, keeping the ram "in mind" absent any stimulus/response kind of thing. He seemed to know the other fish was still in the tank, even if he didn't know where. He was obviously searching the tank. I had some plastic rock ledges in there, and I saw him looking under the rocks. He was pretty big, so he had to partially turn on his side to get his eye low enough to see under there.

I had no idea fish could do things like that. As I said, this doesn't directly concern discus, but I say anything a gourami can do, a discus can do better...

[KIWI13]

Once more it boils down to instinct. Dwarf gourami's are very territorial and territorial fish always fight to be the boss. Its their instinct. Like cats hunt.
One might say rams are intelligent cause they inspect sites and have a breeding site and a rearing site. They transfer their babies like we do. But its only thier parental instinct.

Intelligence is defined as follows:
-The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
-The faculty of thought and reason.

Dolphins and killer whales fall into this category but like I said before I would hardly consider myself intelligent enough to decipher the capicity of intelligence that any creature possesses. :)

[John_Nicholson]

Instinct and conditioning. Not IQ.

-john

[markwill]

Instinct and conditioning. Not IQ.

-john
Agreed. IMHO, anyone who sees for real intelligence in discus (at least in the way it's traditionally defined) is "stretching".

BTW, each time I see this thread pop up in the New Posts list the typo in the subject line seems so ironic :-)

Mark

[BigDaddy]

... Not only that but that they will eat food right out of your hand when they become comfortable around you.

This sounds alittle far fetched to me is any of this true or is it just a myth?

This part is not a myth. Discus can be trained to be hand fed.

[KIWI13]

almost any fish will accept food from your hand. if they are hungry, they are not going to reason if its risky or not. LOL
I have hand fed just abou tall my cichlids, from oscars, to angels and even your miniscule little dwarf rams who are more than happy to pick at blood worms held between your fingers.

[ShinShin]

A study was conducted by a state's biology department some years back on fish intelligence and the conclusion of the study was this:

Fish are only slightly smarter than the rocks they hide behind.

This was quite a blow to the ego of many a brown trout fisherman.

Mat

[Barb Newell]

I had a discus, Julie. I spent a lot of time with her, she learned to repeat three different tasks in order and did so every time when prompted by me...on a daily basis, much to the amazement of anyone who was visiting.

My dog remembers one at a time..... that is her limit. In my opinion, some discus, if given the time and attention, are more intelligent than dogs, cats, monkeys... etc...

Barb

[mikeos]

depends on the definition, personally I doubt that humans are actually inteligent, let alone fish.....just instinct & learned response/training...if you think I am wrong take a look at the world around you.

[ppv1951]

simple conditioning, not instinct or intelligence. if they get fed every time you approach the tank, the will approach before you come.

[discusgirl]

My two cents, I have had a yearling in a tank in my office for many months now, it amazes folks coming into my office that I can "call my fish" to the front of the tank, rub my finger against the glass and the fish will bow or move to the side to be "petted." The minute I look at him, even if I pretend to be on the computer, he'll come to the front of the tank and make eye contact with me.
I was gone pretty much the month of August and had a friend clean out his tank, he hid for a couple of days until he realized it was me and how he's back to his normal self.
I don't know about being conditioned for food, sometimes I just talk to him (people think I need a boyfriend...) he'll stay at eye level with me, not going up to the top for food. Although he knows when it's feeding time.
DG :angel:

[sidra]

Well, sometimes you have to sacrifice brains to have beauty! LOL

I think animal intelligence is different than humans. Animals know things man doesn't. For example, animals can sense and react to disasters such as earthquake and tsunami way before man even knows it's coming. Man has evolved, invented, created, modifies his environment, etc and continues to do so.

I can say though that I've had goldfish, bettas, eels, catfish, tetras, sharks, angels, guppies, mollies, rams and discus. My discus are the only fish who have shown interest in the world outside the tank. My three adults watch my every move, follow me back and forth across the room (inside their tank of course LOL). I can touch them, they "rest" in my hand, brush up against my hand and eat out of my hands. My snakeskin in particular seems to like being touched and intereacted with-he even initiates it. My juvies.... well...their only interest is food.

Kristen