Having spent more than 2 years with our fish, I have become familiar with each fish's behaviour and can expect their response and interact with them accordingly. The gender of the fish remains unclear. As such, I refer to them with either gender interchangeably according to my feeling.
Tenko, our oldest fish that came from a DIY chain is the smallest in size among our 5 remaining fish. Depending on how you look at it, she can be the smartest or the dumbest among all. I call her a panic maker. Her distrust in human is reflected in her frantic movement. Whenever she surfaces to snap for food, she does it very swiftly, sometimes missing the food, and quickly dives down again. This very often causes other fish to flee from an unknown, uncertain danger. Her agility combined with her suspicion makes her the last to be fished if we ever want to take her out of the pond. She has a very weak orientation when it comes to locating food, which could probably be the explanation, why her growth rate is far behind the others. Although cautious, Tenko occasionally also begs for food. You know the sign, when the fish slightly lift their mouth above water level and open it. The only way to make sure she eats without that frantic movement is to stay at least 2 metres away from her. One word: frantic.
Kaizoku is one of the coolest fish. She is the only fish that never begs for food. I have tried to train her to do that, but she just doesn't. Her name means pirate, and that fits her character very nicely. Instead of begging for food herself, she always steals away food from other fish. It's not that she distrusts us as much as Tenko does. She would even come up very close, but she just doesn't communicate the way others do. I adore her coolness. I managed to get her to feed from my hand several times. This has never succeeded with Tenko. One word: cool.
Lemon is the only monochrome fish we have at the moment. Lemon has a hobby, she likes to eat. Of course all fish love to eat, but Lemon's appetite is unmatchable. As she came home with us from the dealer, she was one of the smallest and by far the skinniest fish. Today, she's not only the biggest but also the fattest. She would try her best to reach food, sometimes out of water and into areas other fish would never dare go. Because she's so eager in getting the last pellet she can find, sometimes she even looses some of her scales in exchange for it. She is one fish that keeps following you wherever you are, as long as you are in her sight. And if you come close to the pond, she would almost come out of the water, like a baby, longing for your embrace. If you poke your finger into the water, you can be sure, she's already waiting at the front to suck it. Lemon is the liveliest fish ever. One word: playful.
Joshi used to get all the attention because of her handsome metallic scales. She soon drifted away from the attention and stayed low-keyed. Her appetite has dropped quite a bit but that doesn't impose any health problem. She's just not the eating machine that she used to be. She's extremely calm, like those wild carps reared in a pond. She doesn't hurry for food. She doesn't get frightened easily. Like Lemon, her friendliness stands out but isn't overboard that you start worrying about her safety. She doesn't think twice if you offer her food on your palm, but she takes it slowly. One word: calm.
Koibito is quite a funny fish. With her I have a secret arrangement. Since she was having some appetite problem sometime in the past, I wanted to make sure that she gets equal feeding as the rest. So I would secretly throw a portion at her whenever she's alone. After sometime she learned that. So whenever all other fish hurry to the front waiting to be fed, Koibito would stay somewhere at the back, always at the same spot, wagging her tail, telling me "I'm ready". So she always gets a separate portion of food. But she's so clumsy at it. She snaps and snaps but never quite gets it. She's really not the best swimmer. Worse can only be our deceased Kogo. Hand feeding, not so much of problem. Quite a happy fish as well. One word: adorable.
Tenko, our oldest fish that came from a DIY chain is the smallest in size among our 5 remaining fish. Depending on how you look at it, she can be the smartest or the dumbest among all. I call her a panic maker. Her distrust in human is reflected in her frantic movement. Whenever she surfaces to snap for food, she does it very swiftly, sometimes missing the food, and quickly dives down again. This very often causes other fish to flee from an unknown, uncertain danger. Her agility combined with her suspicion makes her the last to be fished if we ever want to take her out of the pond. She has a very weak orientation when it comes to locating food, which could probably be the explanation, why her growth rate is far behind the others. Although cautious, Tenko occasionally also begs for food. You know the sign, when the fish slightly lift their mouth above water level and open it. The only way to make sure she eats without that frantic movement is to stay at least 2 metres away from her. One word: frantic.
Kaizoku is one of the coolest fish. She is the only fish that never begs for food. I have tried to train her to do that, but she just doesn't. Her name means pirate, and that fits her character very nicely. Instead of begging for food herself, she always steals away food from other fish. It's not that she distrusts us as much as Tenko does. She would even come up very close, but she just doesn't communicate the way others do. I adore her coolness. I managed to get her to feed from my hand several times. This has never succeeded with Tenko. One word: cool.
Lemon is the only monochrome fish we have at the moment. Lemon has a hobby, she likes to eat. Of course all fish love to eat, but Lemon's appetite is unmatchable. As she came home with us from the dealer, she was one of the smallest and by far the skinniest fish. Today, she's not only the biggest but also the fattest. She would try her best to reach food, sometimes out of water and into areas other fish would never dare go. Because she's so eager in getting the last pellet she can find, sometimes she even looses some of her scales in exchange for it. She is one fish that keeps following you wherever you are, as long as you are in her sight. And if you come close to the pond, she would almost come out of the water, like a baby, longing for your embrace. If you poke your finger into the water, you can be sure, she's already waiting at the front to suck it. Lemon is the liveliest fish ever. One word: playful.
Joshi used to get all the attention because of her handsome metallic scales. She soon drifted away from the attention and stayed low-keyed. Her appetite has dropped quite a bit but that doesn't impose any health problem. She's just not the eating machine that she used to be. She's extremely calm, like those wild carps reared in a pond. She doesn't hurry for food. She doesn't get frightened easily. Like Lemon, her friendliness stands out but isn't overboard that you start worrying about her safety. She doesn't think twice if you offer her food on your palm, but she takes it slowly. One word: calm.
Koibito is quite a funny fish. With her I have a secret arrangement. Since she was having some appetite problem sometime in the past, I wanted to make sure that she gets equal feeding as the rest. So I would secretly throw a portion at her whenever she's alone. After sometime she learned that. So whenever all other fish hurry to the front waiting to be fed, Koibito would stay somewhere at the back, always at the same spot, wagging her tail, telling me "I'm ready". So she always gets a separate portion of food. But she's so clumsy at it. She snaps and snaps but never quite gets it. She's really not the best swimmer. Worse can only be our deceased Kogo. Hand feeding, not so much of problem. Quite a happy fish as well. One word: adorable.
