New research have shown that fish are much smarter than scientist previously thought and many fish species as just as intelligent as rats.

Dr Mike Webster of St Andrews University have researched the intelligence in fish and his research shows that fish shows clear signs of intelligence when they are in danger. He says that:
“It is probably accurate to say that many fishes such as minnows, sticklebacks and guppies are capable of the same intellectual feats as rats or mice.

Goldfish don’t have goldfish memories

His experiments have shown how fish use techniques learned through shared learning to avoid predators. He discovered that a fish that is separated from the shoal by a clear plastic divider will make its own decisions on how to avoid predators while a fish that is kept with other fish will decide on how to act by watching the rest of the fish and the choices they make.

Dr Mike Webster claims that “These experiments provide clear evidence that minnows increasingly rely on social learning as the basis for their foraging decisions as the perceived threat of a predator increases.”

He further claims that this dispels the old myths of goldfish memory and that fish have notoriously poor memories.

I am sure the fact that fish are smarter than they are given credit for doesn’t come as a surprise for any aquarist, especially not to aquarists that have kept South or Central American cichlids like jags and Oscars. Species that are know to depress if they get under stimulated and that sometimes (some specimens) don’t eat if the owner is away.