Smartest freshwater pet fish?

[Bettafanatic]

What is the smartest freshwater fish that can be kept as a pet? I know that fish can't take IQ tests so I just want your opinion. I've heard a variety of answers: oscars, cichlids, discus, bettas, etc. My vote would go to betta fish because all my bettas have different personalities and I can easily tell what they enjoy doing. My female betta finds it amusing to taunt my male betta next to her. My other betta starts biting me and jumping at my finger whenever it's over his tank. I can just see the thoughts going through their minds and they're always so interested in everything outside their tanks. They're also very inquisitive. That's why my vote goes to bettas. Anyone know any other fish that are as smart or smarter?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Oscars and Discus are cichlids... I think snake heads are the smartest, since they've managed to make themselves unavailable for home aquaria in most places.

 

[absolutangel04]

Oscars and Discus are cichlids... I think snake heads are the smartest, since they've managed to make themselves unavailable for home aquaria in most places.

Lol, good answer.

As far as the fish I have owned, I would say my angels.

 

[steez]

Oscar's are like pet dogs, ha.

 

[Sssea]

Goldfish. There's a world record for a trained goldfish somewhere on YouTube. IMO, they don't get enough credit for being the brilliant, awesome fish they are.

 

[herp_mommy]

My discus are pretty smart, but I think the bichirs are the smartest.

 

[abrahamavelar]

+1 on the snake heads i love those fish, anyways ill have to say tiger barb they r attention hogs (at least mine are)

 

[bruinsbro1997]

My angel is pretty smart. It always knows when it's a water change because it comes up to the tank, and it always knows when it's feeding time because it starts looking like it's eating something

 

[chevy_guy2002]

Oscar fish tend to be pretty smart. My albino loved to play with ping pong balls lol

 

[Hobgob]

Tough question. I think cichlids. Are the smartest. My angels know everything and walk with me. My kribs watch me walking around and face me the majority of the time. And I've seen discus get pet before and ya. Oscars will jump out for food. So cichlids are the smartest group in my eyes but picking just one is way to hard for me. I've seen to many intelligent things come out of my fish lol

 

[abrahamavelar]

Tough question. I think cichlids. Are the smartest. My angels know everything and walk with me. My kribs watch me walking around and face me the majority of the time. And I've seen discus get pet before and ya. Oscars will jump out for food. So cichlids are the smartest group in my eyes but picking just one is way to hard for me. I've seen to many intelligent things come out of my fish lol

i have even seen videos of oscars playing soccer and ping pong

 

[KonvictKeeper]

Oscar. My good friends has one in a 75g. He fed it once a day at 8 PM. Every day. Every day at about 7:30 it would bang on the hood until it got fed. Like someone else said, he had a ping pong ball in its tank and it would play with it all the time. It ended up getting HITH and died at age 8.

 

[abrahamavelar]

ive alway like them but idk

 

[Rokuzachi]

Oscars are pretty smart. They probably have the largest combination of personality + intelligence, though some fish may be "smarter" than them.

 

[New]

Angelfish or bettas maybe?

 

[maxwellag]

I think its pufferfish

 

[Bettafanatic]

Wow! That's a lot of different answers. I suppose a lot fish are smart in their own ways. Thanks for all the answers everyone

 

[maxwellag]

I guess one way to tell would be to dissect each (dead of natural causes) fish, but brain size doesn't always increase with intelligence.

 

[Hobgob]

I guess one way to tell would be to dissect each (dead of natural causes) fish, but brain size doesn't always increase with intelligence.

Brains are normally proportional to the body size, at least that's what I've heard and read