diane4
Member
carshark - Thanks :joy:
I found this thread because I was researching and reading information last night about elephant ears. Before I post, I try to make sure I search a couple different ways before I post to eliminate duplicate posts. Even if my question is similar to someone elses thread, I will just add to that.
In that search, I came across this and since I am rediculous about my animals and I do name everyone, just about - I had to respond to this one. Plus the more posts I make, the more emails I will get from the forum when there are updates. I often will mark a thread to be emailed to me on updates, even if I don't post. I just love this site. I visit several times a day. It has been a wealth of knowledge source for me. And I have great friends out here.
angelsrock - I have had the same experience a couple times where I named something and had it die, I began to fear it was bad luck. But you know something, I changed my mind about that. I still think each animal is special and deserves a name, no matter how long it lives. Plus, if you have someone else in your house that is almost as familiar with the tanks as you are, it helps to specify the animals name when mentioning them (ie., brady kids ate today and are looking well"). It makes it easy to refer to them by their own special name, rather than the rhodactis.
Name your animals and talk to them every day - it makes a difference.
For my 7 Oscars, they know our voices and I believe they know their name - or at lesat when we are talking to them, even if it's across the room. The more you talk to animals, any animal - the smarter it gets.
I once had a German Shepherd that was eary. She was extreemly smart to begin with, but she knew one heck of a vocabulary because she was smart and we talked to her all the time. For example, when she wanted something from us - she would sit in front of us and stare, patiently. But it was obvious she wanted something. We would ask her, what do you want Heidi, do you need to go outside? If that wasn't what she wanted, she would continue to sit and stare at us. We would guesse at a few other things...still sat. Then, we ask - do you need water? She then bolted out to the kitchen, and sure enough her water pan was empty. That is awesome.
Especially with dogs, everything I do I mention using the same words - they learn.
I also think that fish are alot smarter than people realize. The more you relate with them, the smarter they get.
Just like they say in human minds - we only use a small percentage of our potential minds capacity for knowledge, I believe the same is true on a smaller scale than it is for humans, for all animal life.
I even named my habiscus plant on my porch and I say hello to it every day. It is green, thick and growing. Water and quality soil of course helps. But he also knows he is loved and cared for.
I think one of the smartest fish in our house is Ipo, our dogfaced puffer. He has learned to communicate with us and he knows that we understand. It is more body language and motions rather than words that I think he associates, but maybe it's words too.
When he wants something, he will swim up and down the tank and flutter his fins fast. Of course, many times he wants food. Other times, he is just happy to see us and is socializing. Although, one night - he tried to communicate with us that he wanted us to turn out the pole lamp that is near his tank. He swam up and down verticaly in his tank on the side that had the pole lamp. He showed his teeth in frustration, swam facing the light and I asked him, Ipo - what do you want, go nanite? We turned out the lamp, he calmed his frantic swimming and settled into a nook to sleep. He is too cute, what a button, he often turns a couple times in a circle, like many dogs do when they are getting comfortable to lay down. He is a very special soul.
I even talk to the fish in the lfs - can't help it, I just believe they all deserve a name along with all of the quality care that we all discuss and strive for on this forum.
My motto - never have a living thing nameless. Would you want to be? If there is such a thing as reincarnation, we too could wind up being a tang....un-named.
I found this thread because I was researching and reading information last night about elephant ears. Before I post, I try to make sure I search a couple different ways before I post to eliminate duplicate posts. Even if my question is similar to someone elses thread, I will just add to that.
In that search, I came across this and since I am rediculous about my animals and I do name everyone, just about - I had to respond to this one. Plus the more posts I make, the more emails I will get from the forum when there are updates. I often will mark a thread to be emailed to me on updates, even if I don't post. I just love this site. I visit several times a day. It has been a wealth of knowledge source for me. And I have great friends out here.
angelsrock - I have had the same experience a couple times where I named something and had it die, I began to fear it was bad luck. But you know something, I changed my mind about that. I still think each animal is special and deserves a name, no matter how long it lives. Plus, if you have someone else in your house that is almost as familiar with the tanks as you are, it helps to specify the animals name when mentioning them (ie., brady kids ate today and are looking well"). It makes it easy to refer to them by their own special name, rather than the rhodactis.
Name your animals and talk to them every day - it makes a difference.
For my 7 Oscars, they know our voices and I believe they know their name - or at lesat when we are talking to them, even if it's across the room. The more you talk to animals, any animal - the smarter it gets.
I once had a German Shepherd that was eary. She was extreemly smart to begin with, but she knew one heck of a vocabulary because she was smart and we talked to her all the time. For example, when she wanted something from us - she would sit in front of us and stare, patiently. But it was obvious she wanted something. We would ask her, what do you want Heidi, do you need to go outside? If that wasn't what she wanted, she would continue to sit and stare at us. We would guesse at a few other things...still sat. Then, we ask - do you need water? She then bolted out to the kitchen, and sure enough her water pan was empty. That is awesome.
Especially with dogs, everything I do I mention using the same words - they learn.
I also think that fish are alot smarter than people realize. The more you relate with them, the smarter they get.
Just like they say in human minds - we only use a small percentage of our potential minds capacity for knowledge, I believe the same is true on a smaller scale than it is for humans, for all animal life.
I even named my habiscus plant on my porch and I say hello to it every day. It is green, thick and growing. Water and quality soil of course helps. But he also knows he is loved and cared for.
I think one of the smartest fish in our house is Ipo, our dogfaced puffer. He has learned to communicate with us and he knows that we understand. It is more body language and motions rather than words that I think he associates, but maybe it's words too.
When he wants something, he will swim up and down the tank and flutter his fins fast. Of course, many times he wants food. Other times, he is just happy to see us and is socializing. Although, one night - he tried to communicate with us that he wanted us to turn out the pole lamp that is near his tank. He swam up and down verticaly in his tank on the side that had the pole lamp. He showed his teeth in frustration, swam facing the light and I asked him, Ipo - what do you want, go nanite? We turned out the lamp, he calmed his frantic swimming and settled into a nook to sleep. He is too cute, what a button, he often turns a couple times in a circle, like many dogs do when they are getting comfortable to lay down. He is a very special soul.
I even talk to the fish in the lfs - can't help it, I just believe they all deserve a name along with all of the quality care that we all discuss and strive for on this forum.
My motto - never have a living thing nameless. Would you want to be? If there is such a thing as reincarnation, we too could wind up being a tang....un-named.
