I love it when I type something funny without thinking enough of it to remember it, then someone pulls it up and I read it and get to laugh at a joke which perfectly suits my own sense of humour. I also like it when people realise I'm joking rather than thinking I'm just humourlessly stupid or offensive. Usually my sense of humour is too dry for most people to catch.
[doublepost=1593965834,1593965019][/doublepost]
There's a significant crossover with intelligence. Neither fish nor reptiles are the best examples of intelligence, and most are outright stupid, but you get examples of considerable intelligence in both groups. Even ignoring the most intelligent fish (probably some of the larger marine fish), some including cichlids, many of which are popular aquarium fish, are remarkably intelligent, and would very easily outbrain a python. Looking at the most intelligent of reptiles, perhaps monitors, they're pretty impressive in their own way, and certainly beyond most fish, but I'm not sure they're more intelligent than all fish. Either way, birds and mammals completely annihilate them in the intelligence department. Back before this one of my mental illnesses was corrected and I was breeding cichlids, I have to say that I greatly enjoyed watching them, and I'd have to say that all in all, they do make for better viewing than any reptile I've kept. I still much prefer reptiles for a lot of reasons, but watching cichlids assess each other, select a mate, go through an elaborate courting process and make a final decision to pair up for life, work together cooperating to defend a territory, make choices together for a breeding site, cooperate to prepare the breeding site, produce a clutch of eggs, take turns in tending to the eggs and defending them, lead their babies around strategically and feed them, all the elaborate communication, all the complex social interactions, the language which I tried to learn with a reasonable amount of success... it really is pretty cool, and gives any reptile a run for its money in the intelligence department, and they probably mop the floor with the intelligence of any snake.
Don't get me wrong, I don't plan to keep them again unless I have kids and want them to experience it, but jokes aside I do fully understand the appeal, I'm glad I spent years doing it, and I think they're among the best animals to watch. If you're talking about goldfish or something, yeah, those things could be outsmarted by half the rocks in your garden and lose viewing appeal after a minute or two. All in all reptiles still win for me though.
