Not all families of fish that are popular in aquariums, such as cichlidae, characidae, loricariidae, and poeciliidae, exhibit the same behaviors. However, as bony fishes, all of these have many characteristics in common. One is that they are sentient creatures.
As fish keepers, I think we all have a duty to protect the well-being of the fish we keep. I believe we accomplish this by providing them a proper physical environment, i.e., appropriate water and space, but there is also a psychological and social component.
I found this recent article in the journal Animal Sentience. It’s an interesting read if you want to understand how the psycho-social well-being of fishes, including cichlids, is affected by their environment.
I have posted numerous times about cichlids and enrichment, and how I am a big proponent of environmental enrichment. Taken from the Animal Sentience article, studies on fishes have concluded that environmental enrichment
- “has positive effects on brain development and cognitive ability” (Kihslinger & Nevitt, 2006; Brown et al., 2003; Braithwaite & Salvanes, 2005)
- “reduces anxiety like behaviors” (Collymore et al., 2015)
- “has immediate effects when fishes interact directly with material provided, reducing stress and permitting natural behavior” (Höglund et al., 2005; Galhardo et al., 2008)
I would encourage you to at least consider the effects of enrichment and how easy it is for you to provide it for your fish.
The reference for the article that is the subject of this post is in red text below.
References:
Braithwaite, V. A., & Salvanes, A. G. (2005). Environmental variability in the early rearing environment generates behaviourally flexible cod: implications for rehabilitating wild populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 272(1568), 1107– 1113.
Brown, C., Davidson, T., & Laland, K. (2003). Environmental enrichment and prior experience of live prey improve foraging behaviour in hatchery-reared Atlantic salmon. Journal of Fish Biology, 63, 187–196.
Collymore, C., Tolwani, R. J., & Rasmussen, S. (2015). The behavioral effects of single housing and environmental enrichment on adult zebrafish (Danio rerio). Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, 54, 280–285.
Galhardo, L., Correia, J., & Oliveira, R. F. (2008). The effect of substrate availability on behavioural and physiological indicators of welfare in the African cichlid (Oreochromis mossambicus). Animal Welfare, 17, 239–254.
Höglund, E., Weltzien, F. A., Schjolden, J., Winberg, S., Ursin, H., & Døving, K. B. (2005). Avoidance behavior and brain monoamines in fish. Brain Research, 1032, 104–110.
Kihslinger, R. L., & Nevitt, G. A. (2006). Early rearing environment impacts cerebellar growth in juvenile salmon. Journal of Experimental Biology, 209, 504–509.
Oldfield, R. G., & Bonano, P. (2024) Psychological and social well-being of bony fishes in zoos and aquariums. Animal Sentience 36(1).