[Exodus]

Fish also seem to remember your behaviour when you go to feed them, as in they see the container and move towards the surface to feed...

[Nytmare_Muise]

as soon as my 3 goldfish see me sit infront of the fish tank and reach for the food container they all come to the surface and start flipping out, i doubt that has to do with instinct at all unless their brains are so under developed we can turn certain things into a sort of semi-instinct instead of memory, maybe the way that goldfish were bred by the chinese somehow makes there instincts change instead of remembering things?

"Do or do not, there is no try" ~Yoda

[Quantumcat]

If I got home late, after five o clock, the goldfish would still be swimming near the top when I came to look at them, but when I got home normally at 4.30 they would just be swimming around normally.

Can't you do maze tests with goldfish like you do for mice?

Am I dead? Am I alive? I'm both!

[chris]

"You've got the memory of a goldfish" - Sorry, it's no longer the insult it used to be !

Indeed, recent work on fish learning and behaviour has refuted the long standing myth that goldfish are intellectually destitute. Far from being like Dory in "Finding Nemo" (who was condemned to a life of rediscovering the delights of the surroundings every few seconds) fish actually have extremely good memories.

In a recent series of experiments, Edinburgh University fish researcher Culum Brown (Animal Cognition 4 pp109) showed that Australian freshwater rainbowfish could rapidly be trained to locate an escape-hole in a fishing net as it was advanced towards them. The fish were then not tested again until 11 months later - at which point they could still remember how to perform the task as effectively as they had in the past - despite not having seen the apparatus in the meantime.

This is clear evidence that fish have a well developed capacity for learning and recall of information up to a considerable time later.

The 'three second memory' myth should therefore be laid firmly to rest !

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[unclefiber]

my fish remember a heron or something from 2 days ago - they are sooo spooked out.  
They are normally mad over-eaters!!


my kingdom for a fish...

[neilep]

I read a story to a salmon fillet in my fridge last night (it was quite chilly)...when I read it again just now, it showed no sign of remembering it !

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[unclefiber]

my fish remember...normally very tame and would surface for food day or night, now completely spooked out by something - a heron I suspect (was relieved of about 20 fish 2 years ago (before the net!)
I suspect they only remember what they need for survival[]

my kingdom for a fish...

[briar_borealis]

*listens to chris' interview of Krause* Holy crap, robotic goldfish!  It's a Red Dwarf episode come to life!  Seriously... who here remembers 'Future Echoes'?

[neilep]

RED DWARF !!..fantastic...got them on DVD..Future echoes ...excellent !!

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[sara_scotland]

Ah, but can you remember the name of those robot goldfish?  Without looking it up?  No cheating now!

Highlight after this to find out answer: Lennon & Macartney

I think that people are justifying to themselves about keeping goldfish in a small boring tank when they say that they (goldfish) only have a very short memory.

Sara

Is all we see or seem, just a dream within a dream?

[Kornblume]

I gotta agree with Chris, and I can not quite believe that this knowledge actually makes it out of my head, but when I was at Berlin Free University, I had to do a practical called "wavelength discrimination in goldfish" (don't ask). And yes, they do have quite a good memory, and they even distinguish colours, and we found out because we couldn't do the testing (with a specifically built apparatus for the goldfish, for an operant conditioning type experiment - somebody should really look at the distribution of research funds) because the memory of the goldfish is too good, and they remembered what they had to do from the previous semester. So there!

[TabathaJo]

The real question should be, who actually takes the time to test a fish's memory span -- this is one of the silliest topics I've ever heard.

Tabatha

[l_kryptonite]

Lennon and McCartney.
"My toof, my toof, I fink I broke my toof!"

My comets recognise me and always come to play when I go near the tank.  I have a deliberately sporadic feeding pattern but that does not seem to bother them.  I thought fish were stupid until I inherrited these two.  They are actually smarter than the cat...but that's not hard.

[chris]

Do you ever pretend to feed them, just to see what they do ?

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[l_kryptonite]

I'd never tease anyone or anything with food.  Didn't you ever see the rolo add?

[chris]

No, what happens ?

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[l_kryptonite]

Rolo choc caramel sweets.  A young boy teases en elephant at a zoo with his pack of rolos.  Many years later he returns and the elephant gets his revenge.
Vague, I know. Sorry about that.

As for the fish, I suppose that would be one way to test the memory span[]

[Broca]

http://www.allowe.com/Humor/video.htm

Check this site out you might find your elephant story on it. :-)

[l_kryptonite]

Why thank you, Broca, that is exactly the advert I was referring to.

[ukmicky]

I used to go fishing and they seemed to learn very quickly not to take my bait.