Are fish smart?

Answer

Hi Joke,

Although you cannot compare the intelligence of fish to that of humans, we should certainly not underestimate the intelligence of fish. There are many types of fish, and some are probably smarter than others.

For example, in the past it was often said that goldfish only had a memory of 3 seconds. Many people still believe this today. Nowadays a lot of research is being done on the intelligence and learning capacity of fish. For example, certain fish have been shown to avoid parts of a fish pond after being caught with a fishing rod. Of course you need a memory that extends longer than 3 seconds for this. It is believed that different fish species have a good memory and that they can remember things for several months or years.

It is also nice to know that you can teach fish all kinds of things. For example, on Youtube you will find videos about goldfish that perform all kinds of ‘tricks’ (click here). In zoos, sharks are sometimes trained with so-called target training. The sharks have to touch a certain figure (the ‘target’) before they get their food. Each shark has its own figure, and comes to it when it’s time to eat. This allows caretakers to feed the different sharks separately, and thus check whether each animal has eaten well.

Often the use of tools is considered a sign of intelligence. We also find this characteristic in certain fish species. For example, there are fish that use leaves to transport their eggs to a safer place in case of danger. One species of wrasse has been observed to use a stone to open shells, so that it can access the edible flesh inside the shell.

In short, there are plenty of examples that show that fish are smart to some extent.