• Question: why do fishes have a 3 second memory is it because they are stupid?????

    Asked by mikunandluke to Ed, Hayley, Jason, Nathan, Sophie on 20 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by juneoct2233.
    • Photo: Hayley Evers-King

      Hayley Evers-King answered on 20 Mar 2013:

      This is a bit of a myth. Even goldfish have been shown to have much longer memories than 3 seconds, soem studies suggest they can remember things for three months. Many fish can remember things for even longer. Some fish return to the same place they were born after a long time away, this could be a type of memory.

      Lots of fish have been shown to do very clever things, so they are far from stupid. Some will hunt together and other have complex societies.

Comments

  • claireinness commented on :

    Hello there. I was a fish person before I was a writer – so I hope it’s OK if I gatecrash! Some fish are actually quite smart, even though they have very small brains. You can train fish called guppies to go through an underwater maze to find food – and they remember the route months later. Other fish learn to recognise people and will come to the top of the tank when they see them. That’s more because they think they’re going to be fed though, rather than wanting to say hello 🙂