The shocking secret of goldfish memory
Think your goldfish can’t remember one moment to the next? Think again. A schoolboy scientist in Australia has proven that goldfish have a far better memory than the three-second retention span of urban legend.
Roy Stokes, a pupil at the Australian Science and Mathematics School in Adelaide, performed his goldfish memory experiments to prove that fish should not be cooped up in too-tiny tanks:
“We are told that a goldfish has a memory span of less than three seconds and that no matter how small its tank is, it will always discover new places and objects,” Rory said.
“I wanted to challenge this theory as I believe it is a myth intended to make us feel less guilty about keeping fish in small tanks.”
His experiment involved training the fish to move towards a special beacon that he flashed 30 seconds before feeding them. Over several weeks the fish learned to swim towards the beacon in anticipation of the food, eventually doing so within a few seconds.
Roy then turned off the beacon for a week before restarting. The goldfish immediately responded to it again, proving their memory of the beacon’s relevance to any respectable goldfish’s favourite subject - food - was still intact.
“My experiments showed that goldfish have the mental capabilities to learn and remember fairly complex concepts and they can retain that knowledge for at least a number of days.”
The lesson? If you get a paranoid feeling your goldfish recognise you: you’re probably right.
Mar 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I’ve got something to add.
Damn, I forgot what I was gonna say.
Mar 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
wow, that’s really interesting. but do his findings really mean that goldfish need bigger tanks?
Mar 10th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Okay, so there’s no doubt that fish have memory. Anyone who has every kept fish could tell scientists that (okay, I accept that this was just a small boy). But the real question is whether or not their memory means they have feelings/emotions? I think very unlikely myself, much as I love my fish.
Mar 29th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Thank you RickieB : your comment was so predictable, but had me in stitches!!