# Do you fish swim and hide when you walk up to the tank?



## accordztech (Dec 6, 2004)

Mine used to especially after rescaping. But i started feeding them when i came into the room and now they come up to the glass when i come in


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## torsp (Dec 19, 2010)

Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


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## Geniusdudekiran (Dec 6, 2010)

torsp said:


> Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


Winning!


But to the OP, I know that CPDs are supposed to be VERY timid.


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## newportjon (Mar 22, 2011)

torsp said:


> Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


Hahahaha!


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## manikmunky (Mar 24, 2011)

If I've spent a while re-locating fish from the main tank to the tubs in the spare room (too many guppies...) then the fish in the main tank and those in the tubs will be very timid for a day or so. After that they seem to remember I feed them and come up to the glass 




torsp said:


> Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


I'm obviously training mine wrong... Something to work on!


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## zavikan (Jan 5, 2009)

I keep my fishtank in the hallway (and people walk by it 1ft away all day long).

The new fish get REALLY traumatized by this (Its so awful when they are so upset they bang into things), so I try to limit movement around the tank, make the family walk slow too.

2 weeks later they are acclimated and dont care about movement around the tank. If you STOP in front of the tank, they expect food.


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## AndiH (Apr 4, 2010)

My greedy betta is front and center every time I take a step towards the tanks. The minnows ignore me as always, and the corys run for cover, but the BN is worse. I swear sometimes if I even look over at the tank he's gone in a flash.


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## scapegoat (Jun 3, 2010)

my fish are chomping at the bit whenever they see me. they've learned quickly that i feed them


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

Most of the fish in the tank have spent around 9 months in the tank now (ich and columnaris wiped out 10 cardinals), and they are still scared of me. I think the reasoning is I stick my hands in the tank quite often to rearrange things. Once I get things the way I like it, I will try and stop dipping my hands in the tank, and see if they will be any different. There was a time the fish greeted me because they know food was coming, but that was very brief.

Thank you for sharing guys.


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## Triad Angels (Apr 14, 2011)

In all my tanks ,All the angels come to the front and to the top if I walk anywhere near their tanks. It is hard sometimes trying to get pictures of them . But I guess its better then them hiding from me. Heck my angels do this to everyone that comes near their tanks. Guess they are not shy:icon_bigg


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## ValMM (Feb 22, 2011)

My Betta swims up to the front of his bowl to greet me. The Panda Corys usually drop to the sand. When someone else comes in, they hide before the person enters the dorm room. If the person stays long enough, they come out where we can see them.


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Geniusdudekiran said:


> Winning!
> 
> 
> But to the OP, I know that CPDs are supposed to be VERY timid.


My CPDs aren't the least bit shy (all tank bred though, not wild caught). They swarm when I come into the room, cause they want to be fed!


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## irbenson (Jun 14, 2010)

My angels always go to the top and try to swim outwards towards me...it's rather annoying and I always get guilt tripped into feeding them xD


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## Paragon (Jan 16, 2011)

Odd observation: my cichlid tank is more shy when their nitrate levels are high. Also, some fish are a lot more likely to hide. My tetras want to say hi while my long-fin rams are more likely to dart away.


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## Regenesis (Apr 12, 2011)

I recently just added some Julii corys to my 30 gallon and noticed when I come up to the tank, they scatter for cover. But, I noticed they don't really when I approach the tank slowly.


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## LiveHumanSkeleton (Aug 1, 2010)

It'll definitely depend on individual fish temperament and how that's influenced by their relation to you. As was already mentioned, the immediate connection between a presence near the tank and food is the strongest bond. While the appearance of a hand in the water, possibly disturbing the environment will be perceived as threatening unless performed with some finesse.


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## jwalls1082 (Jul 14, 2010)

My neons and guppies always come right up to the front glass. That tank is in the living room and I'm always walking by. If I sit in the chair beside the tank, food is demanded. My betta in the bedroom wants food every time i walk within 10 feet of his tank. All the fish watch everything I do with my hands in the tank, guppies even nip at my arm hairs.

And the worst of all, my red eared slider. He's also in the living room, but on the opposite side from where I usually am. If I so much as look his direction, he's at the front splashing at me for some food. He also follows me around and watches me work in the tank.


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## ktownhero (Mar 21, 2011)

My pitbull pleco absolutely hates me. I read that these are one of the more social plecos, but not mine. When I first put him in the tank he buried himself in the substrate -- that was the last time I saw him. The only occasional evidence that he's there that I get is when I walk into the room and see something dart and all of my plants move. And I haven't even seen that in about a week! 

All of my other fish love me


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## tamsin (Jan 12, 2011)

My embers, chilli rasboras and white clouds form one tight shoal right up front if I go near the tank. It makes it kinda difficult to look closely at anything cos they follow your nose. The kuhli seem to take this as a signal and arrive about 20 seconds later for clean up duties. 

If I put my hand in they follow me about and the white clouds peck at me! I do 'hand feed' as I hold a pinch of flake under the water so it drops to where the chilli's prefer to feed.


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## HypnoticAquatic (Feb 17, 2010)

all of my fish come to me as i walk by, expecially mynicaraguense hes my boy watches me as i sleep an when i get up or move he will dance to get my attn even if i just walk by my room or peek my head in he knows who i am vs another person he would go hide then an hes only 2years old but my favorite hes almost taught his girl to do it but shes shy so i let her be.


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## causemisahastheeyes (Feb 28, 2010)

My cories do, and some plecos, but the shrimp could care less, and the hoplos are excited when I walk up, hoping for grub.


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## Quesenek (Sep 26, 2008)

My corys go nuts when I first walk by the tank then they are fine.
My other fish get pretty excited when I walk by.


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## sweet chariot (Nov 14, 2010)

Haha my fish are goldfish and they get so excited when I come up to the tank. They come up to the surface with their big mouths like koi and squirt water and me lol. They have even jumped out of water a few times, fortunately not out of the tank.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

HypnoticAquatic said:


> all of my fish come to me as i walk by, expecially mynicaraguense hes my boy watches me as i sleep an when i get up or move he will dance to get my attn even if i just walk by my room or peek my head in he knows who i am vs another person he would go hide then an hes only 2years old but my favorite hes almost taught his girl to do it but shes shy so i let her be.


Ever heard of punctuation? :icon_smil


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Heck no, my betta is like an anxious puppy who swims right up to meet anyone that drops by my office and gets within range. I swear if I had a leash to walk him...


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## oscarsx (Mar 15, 2011)

torsp said:


> Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


Haha that's funny.

mine do the same.... 

of course, after every rescape they get frighten of me for a few days.. after that It's all golden.


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## Kitty_Kitsch (Apr 27, 2011)

Rather funny. My fish took about 2 months to get used to me. At first my swordtails wouldn't even come out from behind the plants and logs unless I walked away, not even for food! Now everybody will eat out of my fingers! The male sword tends to nibble my fingers more than the food though :/


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## allegoriest (Jul 9, 2010)

torsp said:


> Whenever I enter the room where my tanks are all my shrimp will line up and salute me. I expect nothing less.


See, this is like, the best post ever.


From my angels, I demand THE DANCE. If I'm anywhere in their line of sight, they must come to the front and do the dance. When I go to fish stores, if they do not come straight to the front and wiggle all happy, they will not enter my tank. The tetras are allowed to have two left fins, but that's because everyone knows I don't love them as much. 
Sometimes I catch them off guard, and terrify them, but 9 times out of 10, they dance for me.


My salamander does this too. If he sees or hears me, he runs to the front and presses his face against the glass. Daww.


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## Sukhoi (Apr 28, 2011)

All my angels and my ram will pressed themselves against the glass wanting attention from me. Even when I wave my foot by the tank (since its right next to my bed) they will gather seeking attention. If my boyfriend is by the aquarium, they will gather around and just stared at him. Some fish just have an attention loving personality, just like cats and dogs. The other fish are just like meh. In fact I hardly see my loaches these days.


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## audioaficionado (Apr 19, 2011)

Most of 'em come up to the top front when I'm near because they want me to feed 'em.


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## allegoriest (Jul 9, 2010)

Sukhoi said:


> All my angels and my ram will pressed themselves against the glass wanting attention from me. Even when I wave my foot by the tank (since its right next to my bed) they will gather seeking attention. If my boyfriend is by the aquarium, they will gather around and just stared at him. Some fish just have an attention loving personality, just like cats and dogs. The other fish are just like meh. In fact I hardly see my loaches these days.


That's exactly like mine. They're by my bed, and if I fluff a pillow or something, they swim over and investigate. Or if someone's in the hallway, they get excited. They know if someone walks up before I do. D:


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## nadawag579 (Mar 28, 2011)

My tank has adequate aeration.. so the water (hence the fish) is constantly on the move, so they never seem to notice me, except when I open the lid to feed them!


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## silentcircuit (Apr 30, 2011)

The 29 gallon:

The Neons do their own thing, they could care less about me unless it's feeding time. I have noticed they school a lot more closely and consistently since I got the Spotted Climbing Perch; clearly they are aware they're being watched. Constantly.

Both Silver Hatchets just wander around near the top. I need to get a few more so they school, I think.

The Pleco is usually hanging on the back of the big piece of driftwood ignoring everything else unless someone -- usually the Spotted Climbing Perch -- comes and annoys him; then he dashes around the tank a bit and fans his fins a few times to let everybody know he's a big bad mother and they should leave him alone (he's 2.5" and thinks he's 12") before returning to hang on 'his' driftwood again.

The Spotted Climbing Perch is the latest addition, and he's still getting used to everything, at least that's my impression. Only been in the display (out of quarantine) for about 3 days now. Initially he was very inquisitive, gave the Pleco a hard time, followed everyone around, watched me but ran like heck if I even suggested putting anything in the tank. Now he mostly keeps to himself in "his" corner when not stalking the Neons. None have gone missing yet but I think it's only a matter of time until he gets big enough (or bold enough) to try fitting one in his mouth, which is /huge/. I plan to move them to another tank for their own good shortly, cause he's too neat to take back. Curious to see how he responds to ghost shrimp, too!

The corys (Julii in my case, 3 of them, planning to get 3 more soon), as others have said, tend to freak out big time if I move too fast (and their definition of "too fast" seems to be anything above a horror movie stalker crawl) toward or past the tank, but after the initial startle they are pretty calm, either 'hiding' still or just not worried any more, I can't tell. If I'm not moving around, just watching the tank or sitting on the computer nearby they tend to do laps back and forth, up and down the front glass, and sometimes the occasional crazy split-second corkscrew maneuver to the top of the tank and back. Pretty cool fish -- I've never had corys before.

To be fair this tank has only been up about a month now (since it was fully cycled), and not all the fish have been in it the whole time. I'm sure there's still a lot of settling down to do and personalities to emerge.


The 20 gallon:

Frumious Bandersnatch the Green Spotted Puffer and five ghost shrimp (of the original feeding of about 20) which for reasons I have yet to comprehend were deemed "friends, not food" a few months ago -- it's that or she couldn't catch them and I find that very, very hard to believe given her track record -- are the only inhabitants of this tank. "Frumi" as I call her will happily murder anything and everything else that has the audacity to enter her little corner of the world. Lately she has been 'pacing' a lot up and down the glass and ignoring me out of boredom, so I am planning a massive, total overhaul of the tank in hopes of improving her mood. Yes, puffers have moods. This particular puffer's mood tends to be 'nasty' regardless of all else, but I love her anyway for some reason. She is my vicious little spotted football of death.

Frumi I've had for about a year and a half, two years now. She has always been evil, though not always so quick to blatantly ignore me. I suspect she's angry I'm not feeding her as often as part of the recent attempt to break her of her krill addiction, which I recently learned could lead to the equivalent of fishy lock-jaw if I don't get some more variety in her diet. Oh no! (Seriously though, any suggestions here? The guys at the local fish store don't know what to do. They try to get me to give her feeder guppies, and I don't want to do that cause they're bad nutritionally and often diseased...)


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## [email protected] (Apr 27, 2011)

*Gf not shy at all!*

My 2 common gf r at the front, along with my shubunkin, waiting 2 b fed at all times. They r so greedy!! When they r really hungry they'll follow my hand around the front of the tank. My kids get a real kick outta that. When they finally get sum food they'll almost jump outta the tank 2 get 2 it splashing my kids with water. Lol. Now, needless 2 say, my kids r obsessed with feedin them so they'll get splashed with sum water. Too funny.


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