How Do Fish Recognize Another of their own Species?

[DavyKOTWF]

It seems they do. Do they say, "hey, there's another Panda Molly! I'll go join them!"

Neon Tetra: "Hey, let's go school with THOSE guys!"

Are fish that smart?

Plus if a female looks quite a bit different than the male, how do they know they're the same and thus, "hey, let's get together!" ?

 

[Delapool]

Read an interesting article on weekend that suggested (not saying it’s true) that one reason not to keep American and African cichlids together is each has separated to have different submission, aggression, behaviours, etc.

 

[King Fisher]

I recently had a lone male angelfish in with 4 discus in a quarantine tank. The Angel began acting like a discus. It attempted to make it's place in the pecking order and attempted to fertilize eggs laid by a female discus. He was treated different by the discus but he tried to be a discus. Pretty amusing.

 

[Delapool]

Gee, that’s keen fish!

Got (the clever ones) guppies that hang with tiger barbs but more about survival from angelfish friends.

 

[DavyKOTWF]

I finally googled something that may explain it. They SMELL their own kind. They can supposedly even smell their own kind for their sex, m or f. Probably Mollies can smell other different kinds of Mollies. I have a albino balloon that often hangs around my Cookies and Cream Molly.

 

[rlederer]

It's not a matter of being smart, it's instinctive. Fish use scent, sight, sound,and vibrations to communicate with and recognize other fish of their species. They also learn how to interact with other species and detect predators and friendly fish.