How much does the environment a fry is raised in impact behavior?

[Schuyler]

For instance, would a have raised fish that's exposed to people constantly be less shy that a fish of the same species raised in a farm or on the wild?

Would a usually aggressive fish be less likely to be aggressive if it were raised in a community setting?

Would a fry raised in a shrimp tank be less likely to try and eat shrimp?

Are there other scenarios that have an impact? Like the food they are willing to eat

Edited February 5, 2023 by Schuyler

[Lennie]

I like the idea of this topic.

I would like to share some opinion in this regard, but these are just my ideas so no facts whatsoever. I had a chance to keep soo many different animals until today. Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, chickens, pigeons, dogs, cats, fishes, parrot, horses, turtles, tortoises etc.

The first thing I'd like to mention is, from what I have been observing, we are not like most animals when it comes to our diet. When you give a fry bbs, it will eat it directly. When you give a lion baby a dead animal flesh, it devours it. When you give a human baby a baby rabbit, you cannot see it instinctively killing it and eating it. So I feel like animals killing instict comes from nature if they are naturally hunters, no matter if they grow up with shrimp or not in that case. Meanwhile we kinda get this habit during what we learn rather than instincts playing a role, imo.

People reporting lots of rams or angels eating small fish or shrimps when they grow up in a community tank. So I again think it is their instinct and growing up in a community tank does not play a role, but a potential ticking bomb. They hunt in nature, and nature is the biggest "community tank" ever.

From shy perspective, I wanna give an example of my guineapigs. I had two bois, one adopted as an adult, the other one was a baby grew in my hands. Adult one I got was the friendliest thing ever, meanwhile the one grew up in my hands kept being super shy and distanced all the time no matter what. In nature, they are preyed on, so this has an effect on them no matter what I believe. But meanwhile, whenever my dad grows an abandoned pigeon by its parents, that pigeon ends up super friendly and builds really close connections with him. Feeds on his hand, sits on his shoulder etc. Also our chicken are really friendly too, especially when we grow them from their babyhood. They sometimes come to our lap and want cuddles lol. So maybe this changes based on the animals own character rather than what animal it is? Idk

I feel like fish are less shy based on how much they are related to natural environment. If you keep 50 kuhlis instead of 5, they will be less shy. I personally observed my pygmy cories being less shy in a community tank as a group of 6, but more shy in a group of 16 when kept as species only. But I believe their natural behavior will play a role no matter what in any case.

Meanwhile, in contrary to all of these, nature always surprises us with unexpected occasions. Like a lion adopting and protecting an antelope as its baby. But these scenarios are really rare.

I personally believe the way we raise our animals have an impact on the behavior of them, but it is well related to their nature. If it is a more domestic one, like dogs, than the scenario will be more likely to shape according to the owner. If you treat your dog nice and great, it will be a nice doggo, even it has a bad reputation like pitbull. There are pitbulls letting chicks play on them. If you treat them sh*t and turn them into a monster, they will end up in a bad condition. However, fish are not really a domestic animal that we can affect their behavior a lot, imo, compared to our long time friends like dogs.

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Lennie