… is a myth.
Some friend told me that fish have a very short term memory, after I started complaining about their lack of space when living in aquariums.
He said: « It doesn’t really matter, how big the aquarium is, as after going around it one time, they already forgot they are back to the beginning, and always consider the space ahead as something new. »
I sort of felt better about poor goldfishes then…
I still decided to check that affirmation today, and I just discovered it’s completely wrong.
Gold fish have a memory span of 3 months, at the least:
– Wikipedia
– By Watching Fish Tail Movement, Researchers Examine Memory
– Dr Kevin Warbuton, Australian researcher:
« It’s absolute rubbish, » says Warbuton. « There’s been a lot of work done over the last 15 years on learning and memory in fish and it has been found that fish are quite sophisticated.
Fish can remember prey types for months; they can learn to avoid predators after being attacked once and they retain this memory for several months. »
– Culum Brown, another reseacher:
« Culum Brown (of the Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology at the University of Edinburgh) studied the crimson spotted rainbow fish while in Queensland. He compared fish that knew their tanks well, with fish that had just been placed in tanks. He introduced a net with a central hole into a tank, and then swept it from one end to the other. The fish that had a strong memory of their tank were better able to escape through the central hole – presumably because they could ignore what they remembered to be familiar and non-threatening to them (their tank), and instead, could concentrate on the new threat (the net). The fish that knew their tank remembered the trawling net so well, that they could escape it in a follow-up study some 11 months later.
By the way, 11 months is nearly one third of his fish’s 3-year lifespan. That’s a very long time to remember something that has happened to you only once, and in human terms, about 25 years ago.
Some owners say that their goldfish remember their faces and freely frolic in the tank when they’re the only ones present, but hide for an hour or so, when strangers enter the room.
And of course, there are thousands of anecdotes from owners of goldfish, who say that the fish remember regular feeding times. This is very impressive – after all, the goldfish food they get, looks nothing like the food they are genetically programmed to eat. »
You can yourself search the web, it’s full of articles about this myth…