FishProfiles.com Message Forums

How long do you think fish remember things, I know it varies with species. Do my new mollys even remember that they were at Petco yesterday? Do they remember the shaky bike ride to a new home? Thanks for the input

I bet they remember the slow leaking hole in their bag.

lol ham i have no idea. its a good question though. ive often wondered it myself. i remember hearing that goldfish have like 6 second memorys but i dont know if thats true. all these old myths id heard about fish have been dispelled since ive become interested in fish. i imagie fish have some memory though. like withmy raphael. fish mess with him once. then they remember not to again. anyways im curious to see the replys here lol.

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

GOuramis are either stubborn or dumb.....They never learn to stop messing with the BN plec, even as it gives them the "Stegosaurus" tail whip!

But i think fish have memory as they remember to come up to the top of the tank every time i get near, or every time they hear the lid open. I love my swordtails, who have the best memory out of all my fish.

Do they remember the shaky bike ride to a new home?

They now need the 12-step program for traumatized fish. THey might forget what the 12 steps are.....


><> ~=!Vote Today!=~ <><
-----> View My Dragons <-----

They must have a memory but possibly not as we know it. Not only feeding times but in the wild how they find their way around and return. I saw what happened when they put a tracking device on a big shark in Aust it was tracked up the East Coast of Aust and several times it returned to the exact same spot.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Yeah, all this fish having short memories is complete crap, it always was. Fish memory lasts weeks for some things, months for another, other and years for others. Intelligent fish like most cichlids probably remember most stuff for life. I suppose even a mollies memory is good for many weeks at a time, its just people see a compulsive feeding behaviour and think it equates to no memory,but it doesnt, a lot of animals are compulsive feeders. Not being able to deny your instincts is not the same as not having a decent memory.

What types of cichlids are smart? What about Kribs or Angels? Discus?

The poor oscar with the lip ring, or the painted blood parrots might remember the torture it went through.....

><> ~=!Vote Today!=~ <><
-----> View My Dragons <-----

The poor oscar with the lip ring, or the painted blood parrots might remember the torture it went through.....

Well said GobyFan2007.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Discus and angels are kinda average, but convicts, acaras, jewels, seveums, oscars, all rifts, all african river cichlids, most sa and ca cichlids are smart, loads of them are pretty intelligent. Almost any fish with complicated breeding behaviour, pair bonding, nestsite development, and territorial aggression with a well defined boundary comes up pretty intelligent. Most cichlids need good memory or they wouldnt survive all be able to maintain pair bonds and territories. Its not dependant on size either I have a nicholsii who by any standard is no bigger than a ram, but razor sharp, and equally I have a firemouth who is such a slave to his instincts he could be considered really intelligent, but almost any fish with major brood care tends to be highly intelligent and probably has lifelong memory skills.

Yeah, most fish will remember what such complete ba%%%%ds as the oscar piercer have done to them , they experienced the pain, the fear, and the sufferring and will remember it. Thusly fish abuse is animal abuse.

The mental weakness involving fish torture is that of the owner, not of the fish.

Yep, I can confirm that Angelfish remember their breeding partner for a few days, at least. I have 4 angelfish in my 75G. In two occasions, I needed to separate one of them to a hospital tank for a few days. When the treated fish was re-introduced to the 75G tank, the pair bonded again within less than an hour.

The "three second memory" myth is a rather old estimate based on the size of certain parts of a goldfish's brain. Some people train fish, using light as a bridge (same as a clicker or "good boy" - connecting the good behavior with the reward) - to touch targets and other things... There is a shark somewhere (I forget where) that has been trained to flip over and present its belly for medical procedures. The memory and intelligence required for that trick has to be very good.

><>

mythbusters killed that myth about the 3 or 6 second memory of gold fish. they made a type of maze inside of a 29g tank. and well they remembered what they had to do to get to the other side

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

To add to the MythBusters bit, their goldfish remembered how to complete the maze something like 45 days after doing it last, which is pretty amazing considering they are relatively unintelligent compared to some other types of fish.

My Green Sunfish hates me, I think because after I rescued it from the feeder tank at a store a few earlier this year, I kept it in a five gallon bucket for a few hours and then took it on a 1.5 hour car ride to its new tank. I wouldn't be surprised if it still has vivid memories of that 6+ months later... That would explain why it puffs out its gills at me whenever I look at it (and it runs away from everyone else).

Additionally, I have seen an Oscar remember his mate after being separated from her for about six weeks. We were trying to sell them as an established pair, but the guy only wanted to buy the male for his 300 gallon. Weeks later he came back saying that the Oscar was just sitting at the bottom and not eating well, and wouldn't bond with the female he already had. He bought the male Oscar's mate, and, as you were probably guessing, it immediately bonded again with its "long-lost" mate and started behaving normally.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I think just the fact that some of my fish seem to recognize me versus others walking up to the tank shows something significant. It could just be my approach, but I feel I did nothing different than the other person. It would be hard to know for certain what they remember but I believe they have some sort of memory.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

Hard to say.

17 years experience with freshwater.

I think they do. For example, they remember when you come by the tank that it is feeding time. Also, as mentioned, on Mythbusters, they proved that goldfish how to complete a maze after they were trained to. I also remember a man who trains goldfish, oscars, and bettas to do things such as swim through hoops and even move a soccer ball into a net (all miniature of course.)

Tanks:
10 Gallon-2 Platies

I think part of the delima is that we are always trying to compare animals to humans. Their minds do not necessarily act the same way ours do. I think everyone here will agree that fish can learn which means they have to have some kind of memory. Their memory is likely concentrated on survival - food, territory, mating, etc. Whether or not they have conscience memory of certain events is doubtful in my opinion.

I wouldn't worry too much about that shakey ride home