I inherited a betta fish from my friend who traveled too much. She kept him in a 1 gallon tank. He always "seemed" depressed, always staying inside his little house thing. So I made it my mission to try to make this fish as happy as I could.
It never felt quite right to keep him in such a small space, so I bought a 5 gallon tank, and put in a (fake) plant. After the initial shock of the new environment, he seemed to really like his plant and I'd sometimes find him hiding between the leaves. But still to this day he rarely swims around. He still spends most of his time inside his house, though I every so often find him playing up at the top. 95% of the time he's stationary inside his house.
Next I'm going to try introducing some vines that hang down from the top to see if that coaxes him up. But it all makes me wonder if fish can incur long-term trauma or depression. Who knows how long he sat on the shelf of the pet store in a tiny cup? Did it affect his mental health? Or is it simply his "personality" (fishonality?) to be a homebody. I sure am.
I don't know, but this article kind of vindicates my train of thought.
Right. Imagine being watched by humans with no way to hide in the tank. No matter where you go, someone can observe you and you won't even know. They will alter your behaviour by placing new products inside the tank every so and then. Put new shiny stones, hanging weed etc to coax you to do something they want. You may not get a big tank because your owner might not be able to afford the bigger tank as price of them keep increasing. Pretty isolating.
1. Were you born in the fish bowl, or did someone place you in it after you grew up?
2. If the former, were you ever given a chance to leave the fishbowl and experience different life?
My hypothesis is that living things can't be depressed about stuff they are unaware of, since depression is a relative state rather than an absolute state.
>My hypothesis is that living things can't be depressed about stuff they are unaware of, since depression is a relative state rather than an absolute state.
It's an interesting idea, but then I think about dispositions. I would argue that animals are born with the awareness of which you speak. I call this awareness: instincts. Does a fishbowl accommodate a fish's natural born instincts?
It's pretty big, but there are only so many variations on "tree", "mountain", "valley", "cave", "swimmy thing", "flying thing", "walking thing", etc etc.
It's not like you can ever expect to walk over the next hill and see an octo-monkey spiraling across the veldt.
Seems like a real stretch to compare a 5 gallon tank with one fish and one plant to an entire planet with diverse plant and animal life, biomes, geography, etc.
Sure, there’s a finite number of species that exist, but scientists discover new species fairly regularly. You never know if you’ll walk over the next hill and discover a new bird species. Try doing that in a small tank with one other multicellular organism.
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It never felt quite right to keep him in such a small space, so I bought a 5 gallon tank, and put in a (fake) plant. After the initial shock of the new environment, he seemed to really like his plant and I'd sometimes find him hiding between the leaves. But still to this day he rarely swims around. He still spends most of his time inside his house, though I every so often find him playing up at the top. 95% of the time he's stationary inside his house.
Next I'm going to try introducing some vines that hang down from the top to see if that coaxes him up. But it all makes me wonder if fish can incur long-term trauma or depression. Who knows how long he sat on the shelf of the pet store in a tiny cup? Did it affect his mental health? Or is it simply his "personality" (fishonality?) to be a homebody. I sure am.
I don't know, but this article kind of vindicates my train of thought.
If you don't have a heater with the tank temp at 78-80 they might just be cold.
Source: planning a 15G betta tank right now :)
The investigation continues.
Every emotion has an appropriate context.
It's good that you are not a fish but a human.
It's an interesting idea, but then I think about dispositions. I would argue that animals are born with the awareness of which you speak. I call this awareness: instincts. Does a fishbowl accommodate a fish's natural born instincts?
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It's pretty big, but there are only so many variations on "tree", "mountain", "valley", "cave", "swimmy thing", "flying thing", "walking thing", etc etc.
It's not like you can ever expect to walk over the next hill and see an octo-monkey spiraling across the veldt.
Sure, there’s a finite number of species that exist, but scientists discover new species fairly regularly. You never know if you’ll walk over the next hill and discover a new bird species. Try doing that in a small tank with one other multicellular organism.