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Old March 16th, 2014, 06:45 PM   #1
robertprice
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Default Are Flowerhorns Self Aware (and do they learn evil stuff on Fearnet)?

Self-awareness in living things is generally defined as introspection that allows an animal to know it's existence is distinct from others and its it's environment. The standard Mirror Test of self awareness has been passed only by humans, grerat apes, bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, elephants, and Corvid birds (Magpies and Crows). The test is generally done by placing a dot or marking on the animal in a place it can't see except in the mirror, and waiting to see if it knows the marking is on it's own body, or that there is a stranger in the mirror. Pigs have passed a variation of the test, as 7 of 8 found a food bowl that was behind them by looking in the mirror.

My large 4 year old female Gold Fader Flowerhorn, who has been twice spurned by potential suitors, now hates males, and tries to bite the one next to her through the divider every day. (She once even jumped into his side of the tank and beat him up.) She also spits rocks at him, and tries to push the divider over. She lives in a cave which she excavated behind 2 large flat vertical rocks right up against the back of the tank and in full view of the bottom of my bedroom mirror. Every time she goes in, she sees herself swimming in the mirror. All the time she spends there, she is looking right at herself. She does react to her image at all. She does not consider it an antagonist and is not afraid of it, in fact, she usually brings her food there to eat it. So, is she self aware? Did she learn her nasty behaviors from watching horror movies? She would bite me if I tried to put a dot on her.
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