Anybody got any surprising observations? Here is a couple that I had:
Fish know new arrivals even with hundreds of tank mates.. not just for the same species even when I add new fish then many different fish will display curious behavior towards them from just nudging(or in the case of gourami, theyll feel them up with their little curb feelers), following them around for a bit, ect. I think this is very cool as it seems to suggest that they know their tank mates even in the crowd.
Actual empathy- I have seen a large school of various rainbow fish get all riled up from the presence of a stray fry at the surface and then their frenzied attack mode will kick in but even though they seem to be hitting it a million times a second, they ultimately leave it alone as if they changed their minds at the last possible second. It would have easily fit in any of their mouths. It was amazing to see them overcome this feeding frenzy behavior, they all eventually settled down and let the fry swim away.
Fish know new arrivals even with hundreds of tank mates.. not just for the same species even when I add new fish then many different fish will display curious behavior towards them from just nudging(or in the case of gourami, theyll feel them up with their little curb feelers), following them around for a bit, ect. I think this is very cool as it seems to suggest that they know their tank mates even in the crowd.
Actual empathy- I have seen a large school of various rainbow fish get all riled up from the presence of a stray fry at the surface and then their frenzied attack mode will kick in but even though they seem to be hitting it a million times a second, they ultimately leave it alone as if they changed their minds at the last possible second. It would have easily fit in any of their mouths. It was amazing to see them overcome this feeding frenzy behavior, they all eventually settled down and let the fry swim away.