Fish have a memory of 15 seconds?

[BennyLava]

You see here and there that goldfish and koi types have a memory of 15 seconds. I have seen it on TV and on the web. Well I am here to say, bull crap. My new fish have to learn certain things, things that can not be learned without a nice long term memory. And my old fish that I have had for a while, prove every day that they remember things that they learned a long time ago.

For example, they know when feeding time is. They will start swarming even before anyone approaches the pond. And, the new ones have to learn to actually come up to the top to get the most food. For their first few days they just sort of swim around looking for food that drifts down. Then once they learn, they will always come to the top with the rest.

You might think that it's because they are scared, but its not. There are ones that are scared, and they still do it too. There are some that if you scare, they will remember that scare, and will act accordingly. Once I thought that a leech or something was on one of my fish, so I picked him up. Before I did that he would always be near people with no fear. Now he stays at the opposite end of the pond from people. This was a total change in his behavior. And the only way it can be explained is that he remembers being picked up, and wants nothing more to do with it. He couldn't possibly do that with a 15 second memory. To clarify I didn't actually pick him all the way up out of the water, but I did detain him slightly out of the water, enough to examine him. But I'm sure he hated it.

There are numerous other examples that I have seen with my own two eyes. So to me, to say that a fish has a 15 second memory, is frankly ridiculous.

 

[koikeepr]

i agree. My fish can hear the gate open and my footsteps on the gravel and they start dancing for food. They do know!

 

[DrCase]

Every day is a new day for me
But if i go out the door the Koi know it and look for me
They know were i like to feed them and when i got food

 

[koikeepr]

exactly. I have strangers approach the pond and the fish hide. When i approach, they come out. That shows to me that there is recognition/memory...and therefore some kind of intelligence.

 

[Bokchoy]

I just had a koi come out from wintering since last Oct 1 and immediately upon seeing me came right up to be fed with its head out of the water. The others that don't know me yet wouldn't have a thing to do with me. When it happened I thought immediately that it actually maintained a memory over the winter.

Unfortunately, I think a better memory than my own....:surfing:

 

[koiguy1969]

i know mine have a better memory than that... and it woukd seem some have a mischeivious side too...when they approach me to be fed and im not there for that..theres acouple, after a minutes wait they will slowly start to turn around and suddenly with a flick of the tail take off and send a decent splash of water at me; as to say "dude, you need to bring a snack when you visit or we just dont have the time!"

 

[Airic]

I'm not buying into this either. I'm pretty new to this but found that the original four fish I had from last year knew what the food looked liked and to know to come to the top. It took my new fish quite a few days to catch on and for a while even though bigger than the originals were more of the followers of the group. This is all slowly changing and bit of competition is occurring for the food.

Also, I can always tell if there was a predator around the day before. They are much more slow to come up and when they do it’s a dart and dive. This typically lasts for at least 2 days until they go back to their I'm starving like behavior.

 

[BennyLava]

I know, mine always act like they are starving. They get fed twice a day, so I don't know where they get idea from. And I know they get enough to eat cause once they do their whole feeding frenzy thing, they slow way down and will just sort of come up and eyeball the food, and not really eat any more of it. Or they might take a piece, and then spit it out. So I know they are full.

 

[kirscp]

Goldfish can be trained, so the 15 second theory is out.

[ame]

I know there are ponders that feed their koi with automatic feeders that they koi set off by hitting a stick that extends into the water.

There are hundreds of videos on YouTube of "trained" goldfish.

 

[DrCase]

That is to cool
When my granddaughter sees this it will be her favorite

 

[ZmanArt007]

That is so cool! I wonder how they trained it like that.

 

[BennyLava]

Thats cool about the training. What can we train our koi to do in their ponds?

 

[DrCase]

I just needed to give this a bump so i wont have to look so hard for it this weekend

 

[dsaufer13]

I see my saltwaterfish know who i am and ive seen them not come out with diffferent people than with me they know when i feed them i always shake the can of food and they all come out O THE FISH KNOW EVERYTHING

 

[stroppy]

I just needed to give this a bump so i wont have to look so hard for it this weekend

i guess the grandaughter will be wanting a look at this one drcase :0)