Oscars are really interactive fish. That's why they are preferred. Relatively easy to take care, semi aggressive. For me they remain a puppy happy to see his/her owner, to get something, and most of the time they are really curious/dynamic fish, moving most of the time, exploring lol, not static fish like some other cichlids.
What is the smartest CA/SA cichlid? In your opinion??
- Thread starter AfricanCichlidFan
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My Herichthys Persei (Pantano Cichlid) behaves just like a little oscar, and they grow up to a foot long!
Pfft please, I played 3d Chess with my Oscar.
lol..until he got so depressed being the smartest cichlid he, unfortunately, committed suicide by jumping out his tank 
Okay ....... funny you said that!Pfft please, I played 3d Chess with my Oscar.
True story:
Had a Super Red Dragon Flowerhorn named Kamikaze... (fortuitous). Would stir up the sand in the tank. So I decided to "fix him." So I replaced the sand with medium sized river rocks. Well then he figured out how to suck them up one by one and still jack the tank up. Until one day he sucked the rock all the way down and killed himself. Had a huge bulge in his side!! Straight committed suicide.
I think most fish are smarter than they are given credit for. Aside from human interaction you just need to observe them. How do 2 different species of fish know one or another is male or female? To our naked eye it would be hard to guess at that, yet somehow they seem to know. I keep mostly oddball fish with some central and South American cichlids. I would have to say my fire eel is the smartest fish I own, he knows me, he comes to say hello, and he eats from my hand. 2nd to him it is the oscars and flowerhorn. When I walk into a room they are instantly on the side of the tank I am to say hello. The dumbest fish I think I have would have to be my bichir. Nature has created an extremely hardy, tank, predator frog snake out of these guys. Despite their clear advantage of power size and mouth size, they are the biggest cowards I have ever seen. My biggest ornate is the saddest of all, as soon as I walk in the room she makes like a log and rolls to a hiding spot. I am sure their brains are closely related to reptiles because they have zero personality.
