What fish do you own that let you pet/touch them??

[livelycorpse]

My yellow tang loves to pet my hand... with it's tail.

[32flavors]

We had a cleaner wrasse in our 300 at the LFS I work at that would come and swim/rest between my fingers or in the palm of my hand between the gravel vac when I was doing water changes. They are the softest feeling fish I have ever felt!!

[jmaneyapanda]

Do you guys really ahve to pet your fish?!

Buy a dog.

[jmaneyapanda]

Do you guys really ahve to pet your fish?!

Buy a dog.

[reddjinx8]

Its brand new and not as popular as rc but it could help. check it out


Sorry but we don't go to other sites to promote RC and expect the same courtesy in return

[Cheekymonkey]

Hrm, my only fish taht allows petting and interaction is my one spot foxface...

[Tylt33]

I have a Blue-Ring Octopus that loves to be rubbed and played with!








JK, don't do it!

[bbauman]

If swimming into or eating from your hand counts, I have a 2 inch Unicorn Tang that is very friendly.

[tonga_man]

Originally posted by Dante_JoseCuerv
my mandarin has occasionally chilled in my hand for a brief moment, but even that was just in search of food.

My mandarin will check out my hand looking for food also. Once Larry is satisfied (his name is Larry after leisure suit Larry) he's not going to get anything to eat he will sit on a rock to supervise. I have had him eat a little bit of Artic-pods out of my hand before.

[Melody]

Not the best shots by any means. Holding fish in my right hand and shooting with the left.

[FishboyBT]

Hawaiian black trigger and spits at you when he is hungary(open top)

[madeeb]

my fox face was real friendly he seemed to love to eat out of my fingers and i would gently stroke his side a little folish i know be he never rasied his fin or spines in defense unless a stranger was at the tank then look out he was ready to zap would even eject his venemon in to the water.but never stung me...lucky i guess.i just recently sold him.the new owner is scared to death he is going to get nailed.

[isabel......]

i have had guppies from the river and they let me touch them with or without food they also like to kiss my fingers

[jason2459]

Just be careful what you have on your hands/arms that could make your fish or other creatures sick and/or die. OR worse what could be in your that could make you sick and/or die.

[Genera]

Some previous fish/inverts that let me touch/pet them- Engineer Gobies, Yellow Blotch Rabbitfish, Niger Trigger, Peacock Flounder (Eaten by Niger Trigger...), Percula Clowns, Starry Blenny, Striped Fang Blenny, Blue/Green Chromis, Bluespine Unicorn Tang (Boarding), Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, Crabs, Snails, Longspine Urchin, Fromia Star

Current Touchable Fish/Inverts- Betta (In an actual tank), Show Guppies, Ghost Shrimp, Comet Goldfish in Pond (How embarassing, I have freshwater too!) Sailfin Mollies acclimated to saltwater, two hitchhiker Hermit Crabs

[Sams Reef]

My cleaner shrimp "cleans" my arm and hand. The only fish that has let me pet/touch it was my old tiger oscar(freshwater). I taught it to jump out of water and take food from my hand.

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by Bmgrocks

I worked with a Dogface puffer, that would look forward to being petted, he would spit water out the tank, to get your attention, pull up to the side of the tank and let you rub him.

It all starts with hand feeding, where fish associate you with food, and don't consider you a threat. Do any of you think that certain fish have a level of intelligence??? (it seems the larger fish are more prone to being interacted with?)

A store in Bremen, Germany, had a dogface puffer that also clearly enjoyed to have its belly rubbed. Whenever someone came to the tank it would swim to the surface and turn on its back, waiting to get petted.
They are really like dogs (and quite smart too).
The only downside is that they get big and are not quite reef safe.

[ArmyGreens]

Trigger and puffer personalities are great, sad most are not reef safe

[joshky]

Unfortunately my only inquisitively friendly pet is my cleaner shrimp, I don't think that counts. Hopefully I'll get a few fish that'll bond with me in the future like this.

[AdamNC]

Other then my 2 Cleaner Shrimp, my Lawnmower Blenny likes to sit in my hand. I can even close my hand and open it back up and he will not move until I pull my hand out of the tank.

[3dees]

my foxface wants me to touch it but I'm not stupid. wish I could get him to stop spitting at me every time I feed.

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by Melody

Not the best shots by any means. Holding fish in my right hand and shooting with the left.

Those are some really nice ocellaris - are they really that orange in person?

[aussiemantis]

i have a dragon wrasse that is basically like my pet puppy lol, but its only for the food people. once they get their fill its over. however i am trying to train him to let me touch it even after a feed. im at the point where it still follows me after i feed him however he does duck away when i go to touch him after the feed. maybe in a couple of years when he trusts me completely.

ps. i forgot to add that the other day i was doing a water change the old fashion way by sucking on the hose to siphon (i use my mouth and a hose because it's way faster) and i hadn't fed the fish yet. water was coming out of the tank and there was great force on the end that was sucking.....and out of the corner of my eye i glimpsed him about to swim close enough that he could get sucked in or get hurt. i yanked that hose outta there so quick!!!!!! he would of never trusted me again...and he would of gotten hurt.

another thing i would like to add is that if you have a nano reef and plan on getting a dragon wrasse, do so with a lot of caution. mine moves a lot of gravel around and actually damaged a few corals by dropping pebbles on them. they are a strong fish and can move a surprisingly large piece of rock with their mouth. i will also add that they will kill any fish similar in shape or size to them if they are added after the wrasse. i have had the dragon along with a coris wrasse since they were only about 5cm. dragon is now 10cm and coris is 9cm. the dragon wrasse does show some aggression to the coris but only during feeding and when the coris intrudes the dragons territory. they get along fine however there is the odd dispute. i once added a poddy mullet to the tank which i caught by accident whilst fishing. it was about 4 cm long and i put it in about a month after adding the wrasses when they were 5cm and juveniles. the coris didn't bother the mullet however the dragon wrasse teared it to shreds by, firstly making a b line directly towards the mullet, then by giving it a powerful Predacious bite on the head, the mullet tried to swim away however the grip of the dragons jaw is rock solid and he dragged the mullet towards the live rocks and ripped it to shreds. i've also seen him pluck a big porcelain crab right out of my hammer coral, he latched onto it just like he did with the mullet, swam towards the rocks and violently scraped the crabs shell up against the rock until it was in pieces. very very violent fish however a very sociable one and definitely my favourite.

[PeteStarks]

I have a female clown fish that tries to murder my hand like an angry dog... does that count?

[aussiemantis]

PeteStarks
she is just protecting her territory lol, my old clown pair used to always attack my hand too, and it was quite scary ahaha i remember the first time it happened, i felt a bump and i jumped lol