Happy Fish? (was Re: Silly Question (there's no such thing) )

[Sue Jeffrey]

Paul
schlosser at beta.ciit.org writes: (much deleted)
BTW, how do you tell if a fish is happy? 
All this talk makes me want to get the tank going again.


 Boy, I know what you mean, but I have a new dog and she takes up too
much of my time. I couldn't tell if my fish were happy - (is it
possible for a fish to BE happy?) But  what I did notice is they seemed
to exhibit so called "natural behaviors". Like spawning, frequently. As
for water changes and stress, what I found was that the worse the water
quality (usually nitrate levels among other things...)  the harder on
the fish was the water change. When I kept at it frequently the fish
didn't seem to object at all. I think any drastic change is what causes
stress....
PS I kept S. Amer. Cichlids, normal setup, no undergravel filter, no
real fancy stuff. 
Sue Jeffrey
sjeffrey at mskcc.org

What do I know, I'm only a tech!