Signs of intelligence?

[Jenene]

Okay... I am starting this thread on behavior since most behavior posts are on breeding activity. What have you seen in your tank that exhibits just pure, simple intelligence. Do you notice some strains exhibit more intelligent behavior?

I will start- My Eruption Leopard from Kenny has always seemed a bit extraordinary but last night I saw him as the peacekeeper. I had 2 fish that were going head to head pretty hard and I observed him purposely inserting himself between the two and separating them. I was amazed. I kept watching for the next half hour and he repeatedly split them up. If one of them tried to come back for one last shot he would chase the offender off. That settled that problem quickly and efficiently. I was thankful for that.

I have also noticed if a piece of food slipped under the driftwood, he knows enough to swim around to the other side and get it from there. He is the only one that knows enough to do this. The others just give up and swim away.

I have read posts here about discus that that love to be pet, beg for food and recognize their people over strangers (which mine also do).

Anyone else have examples of their over achievers? Certainly there must be some extraordinary discus out there...Bring them on please... I am fascinated by this. I have had fish since I was a small child and I have never seen such obvious intelligence.

[Ryan925]

I wonder if you can train your discus to do tank wipe downs?

My rafflesia does the same. No other fish in the tank will ever messes with her but she will get in between two fighting fish and gently wave her body. Sort of a mother stopping two bickering teenagers lol

[Jenene]

I wonder if you can train your discus to do tank wipe downs?

My rafflesia does the same. No other fish in the tank will ever messes with her but she will get in between two fighting fish and gently wave her body. Sort of a mother stopping two bickering teenagers lol

That is so cool...I wonder if that is the top dog kind of job? Same with my Eruption. Very interesting. Reminds me of a herd of elephants! I know there is a hierarchy but I didn't realize being at the top was such an active attribute.

[John_Nicholson]

They are an animal with a brain the size of a pencil eraser....They are not intelligent creatures. They do have instincts that we find appealing. Confusing that with intelligence would be a mistake in my opinion.

-john

[Clawhammer]

Agree with John that their behavior is all instinctual, although I see no harm in a little Anthropomorphism for our pets...

[Second Hand Pat]

Growing up a kid we humans were really bad about generalizing all animals as "dumb". In my lifetime we as humans have discovered that many animals are way brighter then we have given them credit for in the past. Regarding fish....time will tell.
Pat

[Ryan925]

Jenene are you implying we may have a discus manned mission to Mars in our future??��

[Hart24601]

I have always thought compared to my other fish Discus seem quite unintelligent. I mostly attribute this to their skittish nature of course and not really intelligence of fish species though - just how I interpret their ingrained natural behavior - Like several threads about them getting so spooked at nothing we can see they will smash the tank wall and die, never had happen with any other species! Just their nature really. I do wonder if there have been any intelligence studies between fish studies, I know there have been on octopus which are quite intelligent.

[Clawhammer]

I think my betta is my "smartest" fish. Very interesting question though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_intelligence

[Ryan925]

I have always thought compared to my other fish Discus seem quite unintelligent. I mostly attribute this to their skittish nature of course and not really intelligence of fish species though - just how I interpret their ingrained natural behavior - Like several threads about them getting so spooked at nothing we can see they will smash the tank wall and die, never had happen with any other species! Just their nature really. I do wonder if there have been any intelligence studies between fish studies, I know there have been on octopus which are quite intelligent.

Those octopus maze/puzzle studies are so cool

[RogueDiscus]

I think my betta is my "smartest" fish. Very interesting question though:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_intelligence

Thanks for the link. It brings up the question of what we mean by intelligence. I recently saw my pair herding their fry away from the siphon hose while changing water and it made me think they were teaching them. Still probably instinctual. While trying not to anthropomorphize, it's interesting to wonder whether they problem solve or not.

[Jenene]

Jenene are you implying we may have a discus manned mission to Mars in our future??��

Never say never Ryan!

[jmf3460]

I think cichlids in general are smarter than most other ornamental fish we keep. I've kept a number of SA cichlids and in general they all recognize me and can differentiate between my human appearance and my husbands. They never beg him for food so I know they know the difference between him and I.

Now this is a story I have and its true regardless of what you say, I had a fish once, it was a Oreochromis mossambicus which I guess is a type of cichlid maybe. The thread on William can be seen here, http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...ish&highlight= This fish was highly intelligent. I'm not kidding he would pick up rocks and sling them at the side of the tank if you were standing there, to get your attention. I mean you would be standing 10 feet away and hear this tiny tap in the distance then I finally figured out what he was doing. He would stare at me straight in my eyes if I were sitting in the recliner 10 feet away. William would gather up food and dig a hole and stash it in the hole if he wasn't hungry when I fed him then I would catch him digging the pellets out and eating them later, basically gobbling the whole area where he buried the food then spitting out the gravel. He never ate a single fish in the tank with him (lemon tetra) despite what everyone on the thread told me about his aggressive behavior. I swear he would watch tv, he would basically swim still and watch tv getting all excited and swimming faster if the scene was intense with lots of colors or fire or something. plus he would basically follow me across the room and then if I re entered the room he would be still there waiting for me to come back through the door, hard to explain but his tank was in an area that had walk buys from the kitchen to the living room.

William still lives today actually, I gave him back to my best friend who is a biologist, they have him in a huge tank at their office, he continues to live with guppies and mosquito fish that her company sells for dissection experiments and doesn't eat them. She says he still hides his pellets and eats them later.

[Jenene]

They are an animal with a brain the size of a pencil eraser....They are not intelligent creatures. They do have instincts that we find appealing. Confusing that with intelligence would be a mistake in my opinion.

-john

Well body size to brain ration I respectfully disagree. There is so much we don't know. I only started this thread because I thought the behavior was interesting be it intelligent or instinctual- it is still worth noting. Was not looking to debate the difference. They are certainly not ready for calculus.

[Second Hand Pat]

Well body size to brain ration I respectfully disagree. There is so much we don't know. I only started this thread because I thought the behavior was interesting be it intelligent or instinctual- it is still worth noting. Was not looking to debate the difference. They are certainly not ready for calculus.

Well darn, I was thinking of teaching that next