How do they know??? Don't tell me fish aren't smart. . .

[Sierra_Bravo]

Three times a day, about five minutes before it's time, all my fish start gathering in the vicinity of the automatic feeder. How they possibly can determine when it is about to occur or judge the time between feedings is beyond me.

(Food drops around the 1:50 mark if you get impatient)

 

[Jimbo662]

Mine do the same thing!

 

[justmee]

I have a yellow and kole tang that would play peek-a-boo with me, I would hide to the side and they would swim to the side to search for me... fishes are definitely smart and have personalities.

 

[Mrx7899]

Mine do the same thing too

 

[ihavecrabs]

Internal clock. We all have it.

Same reason most days I wake up 5 min before my alarm goes off!

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Internal clock. We all have it.

Same reason most days I wake up 5 min before my alarm goes off!

My internal clock must have come with a snooze button. . .

 

[Mike1995]

I wake up at exactly 7:30 every morning to check on everything and my wrasse (lollipop) scopas tang ( Milton Hershey) coral beauty (Henry Hudson) and pakistani butterfly (bojangles) all are waiting by the one end of the tank to eat. My maroon clowns are usually busy hosting my overflow but they eat once food is in the water

 

[ihavecrabs]

My internal clock must have come with a snooze button. . .

Haha I have days I don't get enough sleep and my internal doesn't go off! Alarm is always set as a backup

 

[jrill]

Don't confuse smart with conditioning.

 

[GatorScott]

I’d beg to differ with the general consensus of the replies. I believe they are smart. Mine will swim to the front and follow me whenever I walk by. I feed at all different times(basically when I remember once a day) so there’s no internal clock or conditioning for them. And at a local fish shop by me(Sea in the City, Orlando) I’ve witnessed 20yr old clown fish swim up and land in the owners hand to be pet with his thumb!!! Saw it with my own eyes, so cool! So I believe they do learn us and are very smart.

That being said, idk if the same goes for the little fresh water minnows you get from pet smart, they seem pretty clueless but I’ve never had a fresh water tank long enough to find out.

 

[cracker]

my Copper band has figured out how to overturn snails . When they open to right themselves this fish flashed down & snatches the snail right out of it's shell !
Amazing to watch. had a long nose hawk that did the same thing.

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Don't confuse smart with conditioning.

Not smart? Then how do you explain the banner????

 

[jrill]

Not smart? Then how do you explain the banner????

I stand corrected [emoji6]

 

[Mical]

enough said

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Internal clock. We all have it.

Same reason most days I wake up 5 min before my alarm goes off!

Yep me too even if its my day off.

 

[ngoodermuth]

They are definitely smart. I was playing around with this tonight actually... My fish can see the food jar coming from a mile away, so I thought I'd try to "trick" them by holding an M&M container and kind of shaking it like I do the pellet jar. The other just fish kind of ignored me, but my regal locked eyes on me. You could tell he knew it wasn't the normal jar because he wasn't swimming towards the surface, but he was still curious enough to stare me down. Then I switched jars and he went right up to the top, and the rest of them followed.

Since I found this curious, I did a quick web search and found this 2016 article... pretty cool
https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/07/health/fish-human-face-recognition-study-trnd/index.html

 

[Coralmaniac21]

I think your clown is a pig he like ate all of it hes like homer simpson sticking his mouth on a beer keg

 

[Mical]

I think your clown is a pig he like ate all of it hes like homer simpson sticking his mouth on a beer keg

 

[Neo Jeo]

Three times a day, about five minutes before it's time, all my fish start gathering in the vicinity of the automatic feeder. How they possibly can determine when it is about to occur or judge the time between feedings is beyond me.

(Food drops around the 1:50 mark if you get impatient)

How many fish do you got in that tank? Is that the 120g?

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

How many fish do you got in that tank? Is that the 120g?

Yes, it's the 120. Stock list is:

7) bimac anthias
2) black & white ocellaris clowns
2) black axil chromis
2) green banded gobies
1) purple tang
1) white tail bristletooth tang
1) spotbreast angle
1) yellow watchman goby

I did have a Ruby Red dragonette as well until recently when he decided to carpet surf.

Everyone is fat, happy, gets along, has their own place to sleep in the rocks, gets fed four times a day, and yet I still have to dose nitrates and sometimes phosphates to stay above zero. My last additions were the bimacs in November of last year and they finished my wish list.