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Even if your Betta is hyper intelligent, your little home for him is, basically, what he was designed for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betta http://en.wikipedi

Even if your Betta is hyper intelligent, your little home for him is, basically, what he was designed for. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betta Bettas tend to live in very constrained environments like puddles, rice paddies, and drains. They're not really built for swimming around a lot, and instead, favor sitting still for long periods of time because they are conserving their body's resources. This is why you can also leave a Betta in dirty water for a long time. I'm staying with some friends right now who, just this past week, rescued a Betta from filthy water in a long empty dorm room. He was still alive, though, because Bettas have a special organ for breathing actual air! Crazy, eh? I say all that to say this: in the wild, your Betta would be sitting completely still in a puddle doing nothing until a bug hops into the water. Your cat, on the other hand, probably wants to go outside and murder things. Mine sure does...

Eleopteryx 12y ago
That's comforting. My human brain still senses longing when he swims up to the front of the tank, but I guess I'll never truly understand how he feels. That said, there's a blog post in one of the comments here where the author chronicles a similar sentiment, where his Betta fish at least apparently chose suicide (!). It made me seriously considering researching how to release my fish into the wild. >Your cat, on the other hand, probably wants to go outside and murder things. Probably, but I don't believe she's severely depressed on account of her restrictions, even if she can't comprehend that I do it with the intentions of keeping her healthy in the long term. But again, the problem is not knowing. She doesn't wait by the door to make an escape, so I have to guess she's fairly content.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  My human brain still senses longing when he swims up to the front of the tank Fish respond very strongly to any kind of motion or activity. Remember, many of them hunt insects. IMO odds are you're personifying normal fish behavior.
  - fsiefken 12y ago
    Teither that or a telepathic connection. To rule the latter out you could design some experiments. For example a variant of one of the psychic pet studies. Use a webcam to log and analyze motion and correlate with coming home at random times.
- ryoshu 12y ago
  You could always build a robot that allows him to explore the world from the safety of his tank: http://io9.com/watch-this-goldfish-steer-its-very-own-robotic-tank-aro-1519903858 http://io9.com/watch-this-goldfish-steer-its-very-own-roboti...

Eleopteryx 12y ago

That's comforting. My human brain still senses longing when he swims up to the front of the tank, but I guess I'll never truly understand how he feels. That said, there's a blog post in one of the comments here where the author chronicles a similar sentiment, where his Betta fish at least apparently chose suicide (!). It made me seriously considering researching how to release my fish into the wild. >Your cat, on the other hand, probably wants to go outside and murder things. Probably, but I don't believe she's severely depressed on account of her restrictions, even if she can't comprehend that I do it with the intentions of keeping her healthy in the long term. But again, the problem is not knowing. She doesn't wait by the door to make an escape, so I have to guess she's fairly content.

sliverstorm 12y ago
My human brain still senses longing when he swims up to the front of the tank Fish respond very strongly to any kind of motion or activity. Remember, many of them hunt insects. IMO odds are you're personifying normal fish behavior.
- fsiefken 12y ago
  Teither that or a telepathic connection. To rule the latter out you could design some experiments. For example a variant of one of the psychic pet studies. Use a webcam to log and analyze motion and correlate with coming home at random times.
ryoshu 12y ago
You could always build a robot that allows him to explore the world from the safety of his tank: http://io9.com/watch-this-goldfish-steer-its-very-own-robotic-tank-aro-1519903858 http://io9.com/watch-this-goldfish-steer-its-very-own-roboti...