# Do fish recognize their own species?



## Joseph0721 (Feb 14, 2015)

I got a new cichlid for the tank today and got an O.B. peacock. It is the smallest in the tank now and the boss of the tank is also an O.B. When I put the fish in our big one stayed with it and wouldn't let any of the other fish near it. Is it possible it knew it was the same?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Yes fish do recognize their own species. Yes you would expect two OB males to fight.


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## LeeAberdeen (Sep 4, 2014)

I have two fully-grown OB males in my 150g and they get along fine. One of them is the boss of the tank too, but he's pretty laid-back most of the time, just a very occasional bit of chasing, but never with his fellow OB. I guess it's the luck of the draw though because, as mentioned, it would be reasonable to expect them to clash. Not sure if they recognise each other, though? They don't seem to pay each other any special attention at all.


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## KiefKommando (Mar 17, 2015)

I have found cichlids to be very visually oriented fish, I am by no means an expert but I have noticed that they recognize "faces". I had Malawi Haps/Peacocks at one time and had a C.Borleyi that would chase the others around and charge them, however if the dominant male Protomelas would turn around the Borleyi would halt in his tracks and hide. So I would assume that they could recognize the shape of their own species' face.


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## aquawoman101 (Mar 20, 2015)

They do apparently 

http://infolific.com/pets/fish-in-the-w ... cognition/


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

If they did not recognize their species, they would not know whom to breed with, and hybridization would occur. Case in point, when Lake Victoria became more polluted, visibility decreased, and fish who had previously bred true suddenly started hybridizing with other species. This showed that those fish rely on visual cues such as color for mate recognition. In summary, by and large fish do recognize their own species, but in some cases this system can fail.


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