Can Even Do the Math
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Now, there is even some evidence that fish can do math—sort of. They’re not solving algebra problems, but they may be able to count, or at least tell less versus more. In scientific terms, this is called numerical competency. This makes sense for schooling fish, since there’s greater safety in bigger numbers. But even non-schooling fish seem to have this skill.
A recent study used cards printed with dot arrays where the number of dots could be manipulated. The researchers then trained goldfish to select the card with the most dots or the fewest. And they trained a lot – they did about 1200 practice sessions. In the end, these goldfish could distinguish between 10 and 15 dots. And they could choose the most or fewest dots with about 91% accuracy. That’s comparable to the performance of non-human primates with similar amounts of training!
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So what do you think? Can fish do all these amazing things with a mere 3-second memory? Do you know other intelligence demanding things fish do? Let us know in the comments.