As we all know quite a few fish (e.g. especially Cichlids) like to rearrange their environment, be it substrate or decorations.
But there are some fish who take it a step further and like to exhibit artistic talents that few if other pets/animals can demonstrate. Take my Kamfa Flowerhorn for example: every day before feeding him I tidy up his tank, incl. re-piling the rocks in front of his 'house' -- and every single day he take the rocks and makes a new design.
Sometimes they're strewn haphazardly but at least 90% of the time there is some 'plan' to his work -- featuring geometric designs, straight lines, nice angles, curves, even animals, vehicles, etc.
And what's most telling is that once he's made a design, he completely leaves it be -- until I come and destroy it during cleaning every day (which pisses him of he even more than he always is). This suggests that he knows he's made something and he's content with it, it's not simply compulsive behavior.
And with a little connect the dot work (and a bit of imagination like you'd have to do with any 2-yr. old's artwork), it makes for some interesting results. Here's a video with just a few of his designs.
Yesterday (after that video was already made), he came up with this pretty decent 'Speedboat' design:
And for the record I swear to all gods/deities that I never touch his designs myself until I re-arrange his rocks (in fact it would be very hard to do so, as he continually attacks any net and pushes it around, he's super aggro-territorial).
A lady on FB commented that she had a Hartwegi that was very talented: he would arrange rocks in circle patterns and once he had a group of circles, he would afterwards change that group of circles into one large circle of stones.
If you have similar stories, photos or vids about your fish showing artistic talent please share!
But there are some fish who take it a step further and like to exhibit artistic talents that few if other pets/animals can demonstrate. Take my Kamfa Flowerhorn for example: every day before feeding him I tidy up his tank, incl. re-piling the rocks in front of his 'house' -- and every single day he take the rocks and makes a new design.
Sometimes they're strewn haphazardly but at least 90% of the time there is some 'plan' to his work -- featuring geometric designs, straight lines, nice angles, curves, even animals, vehicles, etc.
And what's most telling is that once he's made a design, he completely leaves it be -- until I come and destroy it during cleaning every day (which pisses him of he even more than he always is). This suggests that he knows he's made something and he's content with it, it's not simply compulsive behavior.
And with a little connect the dot work (and a bit of imagination like you'd have to do with any 2-yr. old's artwork), it makes for some interesting results. Here's a video with just a few of his designs.
Yesterday (after that video was already made), he came up with this pretty decent 'Speedboat' design:
And for the record I swear to all gods/deities that I never touch his designs myself until I re-arrange his rocks (in fact it would be very hard to do so, as he continually attacks any net and pushes it around, he's super aggro-territorial).
A lady on FB commented that she had a Hartwegi that was very talented: he would arrange rocks in circle patterns and once he had a group of circles, he would afterwards change that group of circles into one large circle of stones.
If you have similar stories, photos or vids about your fish showing artistic talent please share!
