Anyone else feeling the aquarium hobby drawing them away from herps?

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This made me crack up!

I love it when I type something funny without thinking enough of it to remember it, then someone pulls it up and I read it and get to laugh at a joke which perfectly suits my own sense of humour. I also like it when people realise I'm joking rather than thinking I'm just humourlessly stupid or offensive. Usually my sense of humour is too dry for most people to catch.
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I have zero interest in fish, except for eating.Reptiles are way more intelligent and interesting to watch

There's a significant crossover with intelligence. Neither fish nor reptiles are the best examples of intelligence, and most are outright stupid, but you get examples of considerable intelligence in both groups. Even ignoring the most intelligent fish (probably some of the larger marine fish), some including cichlids, many of which are popular aquarium fish, are remarkably intelligent, and would very easily outbrain a python. Looking at the most intelligent of reptiles, perhaps monitors, they're pretty impressive in their own way, and certainly beyond most fish, but I'm not sure they're more intelligent than all fish. Either way, birds and mammals completely annihilate them in the intelligence department. Back before this one of my mental illnesses was corrected and I was breeding cichlids, I have to say that I greatly enjoyed watching them, and I'd have to say that all in all, they do make for better viewing than any reptile I've kept. I still much prefer reptiles for a lot of reasons, but watching cichlids assess each other, select a mate, go through an elaborate courting process and make a final decision to pair up for life, work together cooperating to defend a territory, make choices together for a breeding site, cooperate to prepare the breeding site, produce a clutch of eggs, take turns in tending to the eggs and defending them, lead their babies around strategically and feed them, all the elaborate communication, all the complex social interactions, the language which I tried to learn with a reasonable amount of success... it really is pretty cool, and gives any reptile a run for its money in the intelligence department, and they probably mop the floor with the intelligence of any snake.

Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to keep them again unless I have kids and want them to experience it, but jokes aside I do fully understand the appeal, I'm glad I spent years doing it, and I think they're among the best animals to watch. If you're talking about goldfish or something, yeah, those things could be outsmarted by half the rocks in your garden and lose viewing appeal after a minute or two. All in all reptiles still win for me though.
 
Whenever I think of owning a fish this image always pops into my head.

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So yeah, I'll just stick to snakes.
 
There's a significant crossover with intelligence. Neither fish nor reptiles are the best examples of intelligence, and most are outright stupid, but you get examples of considerable intelligence in both groups. Even ignoring the most intelligent fish (probably some of the larger marine fish), some including cichlids, many of which are popular aquarium fish, are remarkably intelligent, and would very easily outbrain a python. Looking at the most intelligent of reptiles, perhaps monitors, they're pretty impressive in their own way, and certainly beyond most fish, but I'm not sure they're more intelligent than all fish. Either way, birds and mammals completely annihilate them in the intelligence department. Back before this one of my mental illnesses was corrected and I was breeding cichlids, I have to say that I greatly enjoyed watching them, and I'd have to say that all in all, they do make for better viewing than any reptile I've kept. I still much prefer reptiles for a lot of reasons, but watching cichlids assess each other, select a mate, go through an elaborate courting process and make a final decision to pair up for life, work together cooperating to defend a territory, make choices together for a breeding site, cooperate to prepare the breeding site, produce a clutch of eggs, take turns in tending to the eggs and defending them, lead their babies around strategically and feed them, all the elaborate communication, all the complex social interactions, the language which I tried to learn with a reasonable amount of success... it really is pretty cool, and gives any reptile a run for its money in the intelligence department, and they probably mop the floor with the intelligence of any snake.

Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to keep them again unless I have kids and want them to experience it, but jokes aside I do fully understand the appeal, I'm glad I spent years doing it, and I think they're among the best animals to watch. If you're talking about goldfish or something, yeah, those things could be outsmarted by half the rocks in your garden and lose viewing appeal after a minute or two. All in all reptiles still win for me though.


I wasn't trying to imply reptiles are super smart, just smarter than the average goldfish (I know nothing of cichlids) and yes there are different levels of intelligence amongst reptiles too. In some ways my frillies are smarter than my beardies, the frillies know how to round up bugs by going around the other way whereas the beardies lose interest when the bug is out of sight. And you are correct in saying Lacies are more intelligent, my pair are always doing things that amaze me. I'm certainly not saying they understand english but they do react differently to common phrases, I talk to all my reptiles and use certain phrases for different scenarios but keep it to a limited number of phrases.
Pythons are definitely lower down the spectrum but they have simpler needs and mammals are obviously way above all these but sometimes I wonder about some of the humans I deal with.
 
I wasn't trying to imply reptiles are super smart, just smarter than the average goldfish (I know nothing of cichlids) and yes there are different levels of intelligence amongst reptiles too. In some ways my frillies are smarter than my beardies, the frillies know how to round up bugs by going around the other way whereas the beardies lose interest when the bug is out of sight. And you are correct in saying Lacies are more intelligent, my pair are always doing things that amaze me. I'm certainly not saying they understand english but they do react differently to common phrases, I talk to all my reptiles and use certain phrases for different scenarios but keep it to a limited number of phrases.
Pythons are definitely lower down the spectrum but they have simpler needs and mammals are obviously way above all these but sometimes I wonder about some of the humans I deal with.

Sure, but goldfish are the like the Ball Python breeders of the fish world, they're the example I used of particularly stupid fish. Frillies and Beardies are pretty similar reptiles, right next to each other on the spectrum of all reptiles. As far as watching reptiles in the same way people watch fish goes, yeah, monitors would be a clear #1, beating most fish, but still getting beaten by cichlids (which themselves are very numerous and diverse, and understandably popular). Among fish keepers there is a clear distinction among cichlid enthusiasts and the idiots who are into any other type of fish. Except Flowerhorns, Flowerhorn enthusiasts are like Ball Python enthusiasts.
 
This link is not about goldfish!
Goldfish are mentioned if you read the entire thing. It's often touted that goldfish are stupid and have a 2 second memory.... nonsense. Fish, ALL fish are quite intelligent.
 
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