Does this denote intelligence in fish?

[Len]

I saw the most fascinating behavior from my C.rhomboidalis fairy wrasse today. During feeding, it snatched a food that was clearly too big for it to swallow. The wrasse attempted to swallow the food four times (spitting it out each time it couldn't force it down his throat) before turning to a new and fascinating tactic. It then decided to spit the food out and grab it by the tip of its mouth. Having grasped the food, it then proceed to scrape the piece of food on the surface of exposed rough rock to break up the food. If a small piece broke off, the wrasse would quickly drop the big chunk, dash to eat the smaller chunk, then quickly recapture the larger piece to reengage in this behavior. It did this for about five minutes until all the food was small enough to ingest.

I was absolutely fascinated. Man, it is so much nicer to chat reefs when you have a running tank

 

[Anonymous]

Dude, that is instinctual wrasse behavior.

Bird wrasses and just about any Thallasoma wrasse will do the same thing, except with small live fish. Not fun to watch.

 

[Len]

Still cool I've never seen Cirrhilabrus, Paracheilinus, Pseudochelinus, Halichoeres, Coris, Bodianus, or Macropharyngodon do this though, and I've kept my fair share. Actually, I've never seen any other fish in my tank use "tools" in this manner.

 

[Anonymous]

Still cool I've never seen Cirrhilabrus, Paracheilinus, Pseudochelinus, Halichoeres, Coris, Bodianus, or Macropharyngodon do this though, and I've kept my fair share. Actually, I've never seen any other fish in my tank use "tools" in this manner.

Hmm, yeah that's true. I haven't seen any of those guys do it either. Better watch your shrimp; your rhomboid may have figured out how to eat them!!! :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Now that you mention it wrasses do seem to be smart as far as fish go. I've had to trap a lot of fish in those commercial acrylic traps--I'm sure you've seen them but it's just an acrylic tube walled off at one end with a trapdoor on the other end--and the wrasses are almost always the first fish in the tank to figure out how to get inside. Dottybacks are pretty quick to figure it out too. Lionfish and tangs--dead last.

 

[Anonymous]

>...the wrasses are almost always the first fish in the tank to figure out how to get inside. Dottybacks are pretty quick to figure it out too. Lionfish and tangs--dead last.

The intelligence of an organism usually is related to how vulnerable it is. Both tangs (sharp edge) and lion fish (pointy and poison) don't need to be very smart. This is why I have several guns in my house and car and a grand master in Oriental martial art...

 

[NKT]

Len, I've seen what you're describing a number of times with various fish I've owned (heh...maybe i overfeed). My candy hog, in particular, used to always mash the food into the rock until it broke off into little pieces.

I had a Tinker's butterfly who recognized me, and would always come rushing towards me wherever I happened to stick my head. We'd have little games of hide n seek. After I moved to New York, my girlfriend reported that whenever he heard footsteps, he'd come rushing out of the rockwork, realize it wasn't me, and then slowly slink back into the rocks. He died two weeks after I left of no identifiable cause.

My cap clown now, has developed strategies to inflict the most amount of pain on me per bite. Whenever I have my hand in the tank, he won't bother nipping my fingers, or palm, or back of my hand-- rather, he'll weave and dodge until he has a clear shot at the thin skin between my fingers...talk about painful! If that's not intelligence I don't know what is

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen a fish use a tool like that. Pretty cool!

 

[Anonymous]

I've never seen a fish use a tool like that. Pretty cool!

That's nothing! See a fish use a power tool? Put a large chunk of fish food into a powerhead, and see little pieces get chopped and blowed out of the outlet, and grabbed they up in a fenzy. Now, that is call intelligence.

 

[Anonymous]

I think if you guys are impressed by these behaviors an octopus would really blow your mind. 8)

 

[Chubosco]

Monkeys use sticks to get out termites, wrasses use rocks to break up food, I use a pot but can't boil an egg, said my girlfriend. Hmmm...

 

[Len]

Octopus are amazing. Way back way I didn't know better, I had one crawl out my tank and find its way to my laundry room. Surprisingly, it didn't die before I found it.

But everyone knows Octopus are smart Fish, on the other hand ....

 

[gregx]

Ive seen wrasses make axes and hammers out of sea shells.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah

well I saw a sponge make a crabbypatty......

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah

well I saw a sponge make a crabbypatty......

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[stevebydac]

The intelligence of an organism usually is related to how vulnerable it is. Both tangs (sharp edge) and lion fish (pointy and poison) don't need to be very smart.

I dunno...think about it.

What is smarter, a lion or an antelope? The antelope is certainly the more vulnerable, but any of us who watch Animal Planet enough can see the greater intelligence of the lion.

Mantis shrimp vs. snail?
Wolf vs. sheep?
House cat vs. yard mole?
Octopus vs. crab?

I'm not sure that there is any set rule. But I think a generalization could be that if an animal NEEDS to be clever to HUNT, it usually is more intelligent than its prey.

You are right about lionfish not being relatively bright, but they don't need to be bright due to their camouflage-they were given a superior hunting advantage. On the other hand, triggerfish aren't the most graceful swimmers and don't have the biggest mouths, but we regard them as arguably the smartest fish we keep in our tanks. They need to be clever to learn how to flip over urchins and feed on their undersides, or blow up the sand in order to uncover hidden prey, etc. I am always amazed at how they seem to be "thinking" all the time -- I'm not explaining this the best but any of you who have kept one -- especially a Picasso -- know what I mean.