Do fish care about you or are they just always hungry ?

In my dads 80g he has 2 O-word clowns and in my 30g i have two clowns. When i come close to my tank the clowns and my small blue tang swim up to me and stick there heads out of the water and i can even pet my male clown and the tang but not the female for some reason ? I feed 2 times a day and a have a clip for the tang in 24/7 so they can't be hungry. So are my fish just pigs or friendly ? In my dad tank none of the fish care about us or swim up to the glass or anything and hears why im bringing this up, The fish only see people maybe once a day and WC ever 2 weeks so there no real ???Bonding??? time i guess.

I guess I should have said: Do Fish Care About There Owners ?

 

hve you ever heard of classical conditioning Classical conditioning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia here read that

 

I don't know about the Blue Tang, but Ocellaris Clownfish are PIGS! They will eat until they look like pregnant goldfish. Mine always begged for food anytime I went near the tank.

 

You must have really bonded with yours. My female false perc will come from their roosting place (hehe) to the opposite end of the tank just to bite me. The male will back her up, he only comes half way. The wrasse and goby knock the bottom out getting under rocks. I can sit and watch them from a distance and their carefree. Get close to the tank and the wrasse starts buzzing the goby and displaying (Flashing). Dont think it is aggression, believe he is telling him soups on. So i would have to go with ChrisB.

 

I agree withthe conditionoing part. they relate you to food and are used to your look. in my old tank, when my family went up to the tank, they all were out looking for food to be put in or were just out and about. when someone new was looking at the tank, they often wondered where all the fish were as they all hid.

Good point on Pavlov. that is what we all see as when we open the lid or walk up to the tank, it is mostly to feed the fish. my current tangs follow me around im sure in hopes that I will put in food. if I stick my hand in for anything, they are almost biting it in hopes of it having food. my wife does not feed them, but they do the same to her.

 

They recognize you but do they care for you? I doubt it... maybe if your some how faking a mating with them and there a species that only has one mate.

 

I'm kind of on the fence here. My fish definitely know who I am and that they get food from me but they are also very eager to meet any new person that walks up to the tank, but not as eager when I come up. I think they are just very curious.

 

conditioned response. It doesn't care about you and it doesn't recognize you. It just recognizes that something associated with food is happening. That's it.

 

I disagree alot of fish can discern between you and other people, and will associate you more closely with food then others.

 

Pavlov's response, and I agree with sostoudt