I like my goldfish a whole lot, but they don’t have names. Do you normally name fish? I rarely have (though when I was young I named a beta I had) since most of the fish I’ve owned were indisinguishable from one another; it’s hard to tell one neon from another.
I guess they could have names, since they are easy to tell apart. One’s the traditional color, the other has the coloring you associate with koi, though being a comet it’s considerably smaller. They’re cute even, for fish. Maybe it’s just the begging
I didn’t name them at first because they weren’t well when I bought them back in October, but I figured what the hell, I buy 4 of them and hope that the anti-fungi stuff the fish person recommended worked well enough to save a couple of them. I’d rather have bought healthy fish since I spent all that time cycling the tank so they’d have a better shot, but a. they’re cheap b. it’s a 40 mile drive to the nearest pet store, so I bought them anyway. One died the next day, one died a week later, and these two got well and have never had any other problems. But I didn’t name them since I didn’t know if they’d live at first, you know how that is.
Now I’ve had them four months, though, and they seem like they’re pretty hardy; neither of them died after meeting Mr Net twice last week after their old tank sprung a leak and they were moved to a temporary then new home(maybe fish don’t have heart attacks, but they seemed so tramatized I worried.) so…they’ll probably be around for a while.
I don’t know why, but some fish need names and others don’t.
My mom still has a synadonis cat I gave her 11 years ago that I had had for at least 2 years before that and it was given to the pet store I worked at by a guy who had had it a few years before that.
Anyone this is one old fish and her name is Dot.
I’ve also had Bianca the black ghost knife, Colonel Mustard the yellow tang and Saskatchawan the betta.
As far as I can see, the only animals who ever show the slightest recognition that they know they have a name are dogs. Not all dogs, of course, but well trained dogs.
Having said that, I’ve never seen anyone let a hamster off a lead in a park, so they might too, for all I know; but I doubt it.
Yes, of course they need names, I’ve always named my fish, but then I name pretty much everything, names of fish at the moment:
Hocklepock, Picklewick, and Pluu.
Oddly enough, my sister’s pet turtle would respond to his name. I’m not going to guess how long she had him before he recognized that ‘Hobie’ was his name… but I sure did see the turtle look up when she called him.
My view is, if an animal will respond to a name, it needs a name. Otherwise… why bother?
It depends on the fish. If they’re somehow distinctive, then yes. Otherwise, “Fish” will do. Example: One my guinea pig died, we cleaned out her big glass tank with about 14 “feeder” fish – the standard cheapo goldfish generally intended to be chow for other animals. Only one of them got a name, because he just needed one. He was all silver except for a perfectly round orange spot on his head that just looked so much like a yarmulke I decided he had to be Jewish. So I named him the first Jewish-related thing that popped into my head. Matzo. So that was my jewish fish. The rest were just “fishy.”
(The guinea pig that used to live in the tank was also named “Fish,” oddly enough. The pamphlet for my college dormitory rules said the only pets allowed were “fish in appropriately-sized tanks,” and she lived in a tank, so I figured if I called her Fish… didn’t work, but it stuck.)
You didn’t go to UNH did you? One day I saw the strangest thing while outside for a class. Two people furitively snuck into the courtyard with something bundled in a coat. It was a guniea pig. They played with it, giving everyone nervous glances, for about 10 minutes, then bundled it back up and ran back to one of the dorms. Weird. Then again, one of my friends kept her hermit crabs under her bed…they allowed fish the year after I graduated, so apparently people the class behind us and lower were mature enough to own fish suddenly.
Anyway, I’m beginning to like the idea of naming the fish. What I’ll name them, though, I’m not sure yet.
Of course we need names. We just don’t have to tell you folks what they are.
There was a fish of my acquaintance named Steve. You might not think of this as an appropriate name for a fish, but there you go. You’re the same people who think “Mr. Paws” is a good name for a cat. Would you name a human baby “Mr. Feet?” I didn’t think so.
On the other hand, many fish do not speak English, so go ahead and name them whatever you like.
I always give my fish long crazy names that I could never give to an animal that needs a usable name. For example: Joey the Super-Freak Space Iguana was the name of my first beta.
I always have at least one goldfish at a time named ‘Nimbus’. the other ones may or may not be named depending on how long I’ve had them and if anyone asks.
My mother has HUGE tanks of fish. She has never been very good at naming things (us poor kids, too) so she doesn’t. It’s always ‘the spotted one’ or ‘the carnivors’.
I’ve never named my fish. They’re either undistinctive, like the small swarm of silver hatchets, or singular, like the plecostomus or pictus cat, so names were of little utility. Also, I suffered serious guilt and grief whenever one of them died, and I think them having names would have just exacerbated that.
My sister has a single blue betta, which she named “Twofish”. (It’s a Dr. Seuss reference, of course)
I name certain fish, which causes my SO to become immediately cynical. Somehow, by naming the fish, the fish gods grow angry and demand that fish to be sent to the afterlife. Knew a guy who had a yellow tang, and I knew he was setting me up, by hinting that I should ask what he named it. His reply, “Poon.” Very funny smarty-pants. Secretly, I thought this was very creative and was jealous I had never thought of it.
I used to name all my fish and snails (for example Eeyore and Sworkgurblokpup) until I realized that the named fish died. This time when I restocked the fish tank, I didn’t name anything. One fish still died, but he was sick anyway. The other fish and snail have been living happily nameless for 6 months now.
I have lots of freshwaterfish. I only remember a few names like my orange guys are O J and Simpson, my 2 fancy gold skirt tetras are Fork and Bacteria ( i thought he had ich when i was naming him), I have comrade borris, i have a bunch or gourami’s but they are nameless…so hard to remember…I use to have a series of animal names but yeah they’re in toilett land now
