Fish 1 Second Memory ?

I remember learning in school about some studies done on fish and their memories, and yes they definitely can learn and remember things.

An example from my tank, is my royal gramma and his attitude. If he is picking on another fish, all I have to do is walk up to the tank and he backs off immediately. If I don't walk up to the tank, he keeps annoying the other fish. He learned this, because when he would pick on a fish I would walk up to the tank and point my finger right at him. That would scare him off. He learned harassing is a "no, no". All I have to do now is get close to the tank and he stops being a jerk.

 

Lol that's cute...hahaha

 

haha yea mine bark nonstop at thier bowl til we fill it!

 

I do agree with Peredhil to an extent, but I can walk by my tank and the fish don't react too much, they sometimes go and hide, but if I have a cup in my hand they go immediately to the surface b/c they know it's feeding time. Some of it is conditioning, but that can't explain the major difference with a cup in my hand or when I don't. They have to recognize and thus remember that a cup means food. I also agree that certain fish are different and some probably don't have anything but their instincts and conditioning, but others can learn.

 

There have been actual scientific studies that would prove you wrong.

 

lets look at the brain...

they have a large olfactory bulb that is directly connected to the cerebral hemisphere. this means that their higher thinking will be mostly smell driven. they have no hippocampus so that means that they will not produce feelings of love, compassion, or rage... therefore they will not have memories related to "love" .
Fish do however, have a large cerebral cortex that is close to the occipital cortex which means that the fish will react to visual cues and create memories from the visual cues.

so what i am taking away from the picture is that fish are primarily driven by memories created by smell, then secondly by vision. If you feed them they will always see you, so through classical conditioning and positive reinforcement they will associate seeing you with the memory and pleasure of food, therefore they are capable of memory. Additionally, from the size of the cerebral cortex, I would say they are capable of some sort of long term memory also.

 

lets look at the brain...

they have a large olfactory bulb that is directly connected to the cerebral hemisphere. this means that their higher thinking will be mostly smell driven. they have no hippocampus so that means that they will not produce feelings of love, compassion, or rage... therefore they will not have memories related to "love" .
Fish do however, have a large cerebral cortex that is close to the occipital cortex which means that the fish will react to visual cues and create memories from the visual cues.

so what i am taking away from the picture is that fish are primarily driven by memories created by smell, then secondly by vision. If you feed them they will always see you, so through classical conditioning and positive reinforcement they will associate seeing you with the memory and pleasure of food, therefore they are capable of memory. Additionally, from the size of the cerebral cortex, I would say they are capable of some sort of long term memory also.

 

Right. Obviously then can't express love or compassion, but they DO remember things based on color, shape, smell, etc.

 

right... so when I hear this story, I hear it in my head more like:

my RG has an attitude. he's learned not to harass. but he forgets it if i'm not staying right there.

So yeah... and no. if it really learned it, it would not need the reminder.

Or the 2 prey test... I see that more as such a weak memory it can't keep 2 thoughts that are literally right in front of it separate.

I'm not saying that a lot of fish can't be conditioned. i believe all life can adapt. I just wouldn't call that memory... at least not in the same sense that i remember what it is i'm typing about.

ooookay...

 

Also, we must remember that "fish" is very vague. A shark is a fish and is quite intelligent.