Goldfish IntelligenceBy Tiffany Brazell

Rows upon rows of glowing aquariums filled the back of the pet store. A friend walked beside me, hands in his pockets, a green Milo cap on his head. We’d passed pens of bright-eyed puppies, squawking parrots, and a massive boa constrictor. Bright-colored

marine species and corals shimmered from the first row of tanks. Bettas positioned on isle ends strutted their exotic fins. We turned down the third isle. Tanks walled us in on three sides. I turned to examine a tank of blue gouramis.

My friend walked past me and the slow-moving anabantids I was examining, straight to tanks filled with goldfish at the end of the row. “Come here, look at these

I turned to see what he was

All of the other fish ignored us. He pointed to the line of cute goldies. “Don’t you love watching, ‘em?”

“Yes,” I said with a smile. “They come up and are like, ‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. Then, a few seconds later, they’ve forgotten, and they’ll do it again, and again. They’re so dumb!”

guys,” he said.

looking at. A neat row oforange bodies had formed

across the tank in frontof him, eagerly wagging

back and forth. I looked around.

I was shocked that someone could say something so misinformed. His misconceptions were, and are, however, not at all uncommon. Too many people are ignorant of the intelligence of these an-imals, and that ignorance is responsible for the widespread inhumane treatment of goldfish. As

their stewards, we should want to learn more about them, not riducle them or take them for granted. We treat them like objects, swallowing them, and using them for cruel magic tricks because, well, they’re “dumb.” We keep them in boring glass bowls, because, they’re “dumb.” Goldfish are intelligent animals, period. To the surprise of many, goldfish have good memories, and a sense of time. They can also discriminate different colors, shapes, and sounds4. Goldfish intelligence allows their human companions to even train them to perform tricks like other animals. I think further study of their in-telligence will foster a brighter future as well as a much needed appreciation for our finned-friends.

A popular myth about goldfish intelligence is that they have a “three- second memo-ry”. People use it as a justification for keeping the fish in bowls. They figure that gold-fish are so dense that every lap is a new experience. Not so. Rory Stokes, a schoolboy

from Adelaide, Australia, decided to perform a test on his goldfish to disprove the three-sec-ond myth. He reasoned that it made no sense for any animal to have such a limited memory span because it would make it difficult for the animal to feed. It wouldn’t remember where its food comes from, which would be bad news for the fish. He conditioned the fish using a red lego at feeding time. He placed the lego in first, and sprinkled the food around the lego. He did so for a week. The fish responded faster each time. He stopped the experiment for a week and then used the lego at feeding time again. The fish rushed to it faster than ever before.6 They not only remembered the lego marked their food, but also what the lego signified after he stopped using it for an extended period. The Mythbusters, from Discovery Channel, also did a short piece on the three-second memory myth. They built a tank with a maze in it and placed food at the end to see if the goldfish could learn their way through. The fish definitely remembered their way faster with time. Adam and Jamie declared the three second memory myth, “busted!” 9

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There is considerable debate over how long can goldfish remember. Some con-tend that their memory lasts only a matter of five months, six months,4,2 where-as others, myself included, believe their memory span is much longer. I have seen

how my goldfish react to other people around their tank compared to me. They remem-ber me as the bearer of food, their favorite person. They swarm me, bodies and fins erect with excitement. They examine others who pass the tank, but do not react the same way. Another fascinating study, originally aimed at proving that goldfish have legitimate memo-ries, concluded that our finned friends can also tell time—that’s more than some humans in my book! Dr. Phillip Gee at Plymouth University placed goldfish in a bowl where they could press a lever and get food. The fish quickly discovered the secret. Once the fish mastered the trick, researchers switched the system so that the lever only dispensed food for one hour a day. Even-tually the fish only pressed the lever during or very close to that hour .2 I have seen similar be-havior in my goldfish. I feed them in a consistent part of the tank before I go to bed. Even if I’m doing something else, they wait where I regularly deposit food in their six foot tank, on time.

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In addition to having good memories and their ability to tell time, goldfish can discriminate between different shapes, colors, and sounds. One study explored goldfishes’ ability to tell circles, diamonds, and squares with and without knobs. The animals learned the difference

between the circle and square easily. Adding knobs to the top of the shape helped the fish to tell diamonds from squares as well.10 Scientists and hobbyists have also noticed their fishes’ ability to differentiate between colors. User J0shua, from Koko’s Goldfish Forum, remarked that his gold-fish can tell a green cup from a clear one: “I use a green cup to prepare their food, and they go nuts when they see it. The clear glass salt preparation cup doesn’t bring out the same response.”8 Although they have a different organ for hearing, called the otolith, goldfish hear much the same as humans do, using tiny hairs.5 Most of the sounds goldfish hear are vibrations in and around their aquatic environment. Tapping on the aquarium glass creates quite a racket for the poor fish! Goldfish can hear different kinds of vibrations like footfalls or music.7 There was even one case where keeping the fish in a nightclub killed them because the subwoofer was too close to the tank.1 My fish certainly react differently to me walking around nearby, even if I’m in the dark, than they do when the television is on with full surround sound. They can tell the differ-ence.

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One of the most surprising evidences of goldfish intelligence is their ability to learn, and retain, assorted tricks. The discovery began when Dean Pomerleau decided to try dol-phin training techniques on his calico goldfish, Albert Einstein. He got the fish to re-

spond to a feeding wand and, through positive reinforcement, taught the fish to swim through a hoop, push a soccer ball, fetch items from the bottom of the tank, and more, on command.2 Others have used clicker training effectively. A clicker can be a variety of indicators—a light, a metal clicker, or a bell. 3 The fish must simply know the clicker indicates that it has performed the desired behavior.

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Goldfish are intelligent animals. They have good memories, much greater than three sec-onds, can tell time, discriminate between different shapes, colors, and sounds, and learn tricks. The way humans view their intellect massively impacts their quality of life. From

what we know, we can conclude that living in a bowl would be torture. Goldfish, like any intel-ligent creature do become bored. I believe the solution is not only a big tank that the aquarist can fill with interesting objects to explore, but also to regularly rearrange those decorations to provide adequate mental stimulation for the fish. Despite the eveidences, so many people justify that performing cruel magic tricks or putting them in small bowls is fine on the premise that they’re ‘just goldfish’. Stupid goldfish. We’re just placating ourselves. It’s time for society to take some responsibility and open our eyes.

References

1. “Can Goldfish Hear? - Yahoo! Answers”, Accessed March 25, 2012. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006040301147.2. “Fish School Blog: Scientist: Goldfish Can Tell Time!”, Accessed March 21, 2012. http://blog.fish-school.com/2008/01/scientist-goldfish-can-tell-time.html.3. “Fish Training Resumes | Stale Cheerios Blog”, Accessed March 25, 2012. http://stalech-eerios.com/blog/fish-training/fish-training-resumes/.4. “Goldfish - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia”, Accessed March 21, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish#Intelligence.5. “Goldfish Hearing – Do They Hear Sound | Goldfish Care Information Diseases and Treatments”, Accessed March 24, 2012. http://www.goldfishcareinformation.com/2008/02/gold-fish-hearing-do-they-hear-sound.html.6. “Goldfish Three-second Memory Myth Busted - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)”, Accessed March 21, 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-02-19/goldfish-three-second-memory-myth-busted/1046710.7. “How Goldfish Hear - How to Take Care of a Goldfish”, Accessed March 24, 2012. http://howtotakecareofagoldfish.com/how-goldfish-hear/.8. J0shua. “How Well Do Goldfish See? - Kokos Goldfish Forum”, Accessed March 21, 2012. http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/forum/index.php?/topic/86046-how-well-do-gold-fish-see/.9. “MythBusters: Goldfish Memory MiniMyth : Video : Discovery Channel.” MythBusters: Goldfish Memory MiniMyth, April 29, 2011. Accessed March 21, 2012. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-goldfish-memory-minimyth.html.10. Sutherland, N.S, and Rosemary Bowman. “Taylor & Francis Online :: Discrimination of Circles and Squares with and Without Knobs by Goldfish - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology - Volume 21, Issue 4.” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psycology 21, no. 4 (1969): 330–338. Accessed March 24, 2012. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14640746908400228#preview

1. “Brain-fish.png (PNG Image, 609 × 284 Pixels)”, Accessed March 25, 2012. http://braintoblog.com/wp-content/themes/braintoblog/images/brain-fish.png.2. “Fishschool1.jpg (JPEG Image, 450 × 269 Pixels)”, Accessed March 23, 2012. http://www.highstrangeness.tv/articles/images/fishschool1.jpg.3. “goldfishSOLENT_468x364.jpg (JPEG Image, 468 × 364 Pixels)”, Ac-cessed March 23, 2012. http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_02/goldfishSOLENT_468x364.jpg.4. “Blue_water_texture_II_by_EvilHateYouAllStock.jpg (JPEG Im-age, 3072 × 2304 Pixels)”, accessed March 27,2012. http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/217/6/9/Blue_water_texture_II_by_EvilHateYouAllStock.jpg.5. “Toy_blocks.jpg (JPEG Image, 516 × 423 Pixels)”, Accessed March 25, 2012. http://dyalikeblags.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/toy_blocks.jpg.6. “Adult-mad-scientist-wig.jpg (JPEG Image, 1017 × 1500 Pixels)”, n.d. http://www.adulthalloweencostumes4u.com/pimages/large/adult-mad-scientist-wig.jpg.7. “Goldfish Care: Cleaning Your Goldfish Bowl”, Accessed March 28, 2012. http://propergoldfishcare.blogspot.com/2009/04/cleaning-your-goldfish-bowl.html.8. “Mythbusters-420-420x0.jpg (JPEG Image, 420 × 321 Pixels)”, Accessed March 28, 2012. http://images.smh.com.au/2010/10/19/1994970/mythbusters-420-420x0.jpg.

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