Shy Fish

I am accustomed to wild-caught species of aquarium fish showing a tendency to be shy. I believe even domestic discus can be shy as well, rushing off to a corner or turning to face the back glass of the aquarium when the tank is approached. My own wild leopoldi angels got over this, at least with me and my family, though they never showed themselves when I had guests.

Recently I hosted a meeting of my aquarium club, the Central Virginia Aquarium Society, and a good group was in attendance. My normally gregarious and frantic-for-attention orange-head Tapajos were sedate, almost tan in color, and were not looking like they usually do - this went on the entire time I had guests. I knew my leopoldi angel would hide - he always does, but I did not expect the geos to act this way. They didn't hide, but they did not look as glorious as usual. They appeared mildly stressed.

Last night I was looking at them, and the males had iridescent blue/white mustaches, vivid orange heads, iridescent blue stripes mixed in with the deep red stripes on their fins, and the sub-dominant males and females had the spangling and stripes one associates with this species - they were stunning! The mustaches on the males looked artificial - like they had been painted or lit from within like a neon sign.

I wish they'd had this appearance when I had company, but mainly I am intrigued by their response to visitors. Most aquarium fish seem quite oblivious and you assume they don't recognize you, their keeper, but maybe they are smarter than we realize. My wild angel is certainly very discriminating when it comes to being in open water versus hiding in his special cave formed by driftwood pieces. People who don't live with me but are very frequent visitors, like my sister, get to see this beautiful fish. Anyone else can only glimpse a stripe or two in the dim cave in a rear corner.

This is why I need photos and videos to showcase these amazing creatures!

My goldfish, my half domestic angels and my puffer do not seem to discriminate - they never hide or seem shy in the least. They're just always hungry so any being with thumbs is fair game for begging. My Denison's barbs, the lone occupants of my 125 currently, seem to recognize me and come up to the top corner where I usually feed them when I approach, but it took them a bit of time to figure this out. They do not seem to do this with visitors, but rather continue their endless cruising in mid-water.

Maybe it has to do with how many generations away from wild the fish are, but I'm almost certain the Figure-8 puffer was wild caught, since I don't think they're typically bred in captivity, though I might be wrong about that. He's just so desperate to eat that he doesn't seem to care who is doing the feeding, and will shamelessly beg. He's in a very busy part of the house, the kitchen, where two hallways intersect, with frequent foot traffic close by his tank, and I definitely think he prefers this to where his tank used to be, in my office, where there was much less activity.