I know what you mean, Garrison. When I got the demo I wasn't too impressed with it and really had to take a leap of faith when I got the full version. Let me tell you, though, I'm soooo glad I did. I'm totally thrilled with the GA (apart from the small improvements needed in specularity, plants, etc...
) and I now love the GA far more than the MA, though that may well change when the updates for MA come through.
With regards to fish movement, they certainly swim all over in my tanks. Here's a screenshot with some fish making their way from one side of the tank to the other to see if anything's going on, some fish are checking out the plants, one fish is diving behind the rock and one fish is hiding somewhere already, just to be awkward. Maybe he was camera shy.
So all pretty realistic!