Do goldfish really have a 3 second memory span or is this just a myth?
It is often said that goldfish have a memory of only a few seconds, but this is not entirely true. Goldfish have what could be called a selective memory, that is to say they have some kind of concience of what has happened on previous occasions, but are not sure what it was. They can be trained to do simple tasks such as eat from a certain ring inside their bowl, This is because they instinctively know that something good is in that area, they are just not sure what. If a predatory animal such as a heron is around, they will hide away through instinct for quite a while, but they do not know what it is they are hiding from, they simply know it is worth avoiding.
No. It’s simply not true. I have my own goldfish and a pretty elaborate tank set up. Brand new goldfish are always disoriented when first introduced, but they figure out where the best hiding places are, how to navigate the tank quickly, which goldfish are good to school with and which are aggressive, and so on. I also tap their food into a small plastic ring at the top of their tank so that they know where all the food will be and if will not spread all over the tank and get wasted and foul up the water. They learn to find the ring usually within a couple days, and remember where it is even if I quarantine them in an isolation tank for a few days (if I suspect they are sick). I think it is possible that they have a three second attention span, but not a three second memory.
it’s a myth; goldfish are highly intelligent creatures with long memory spans and are able to remember “obstacle courses” (much like the ones used for mice and rats), as has been proven in science labs. In one study the fish learned to solve the course after just 3 tries and never made a mistake again, to prove this was memory, the fish was not used again in the obstacle course for 11 months, than they put him in the maze again, and he remembered it even though 11 months had past since he had last been in it. . additional, lots of pet owners teach their goldfish tricks, with basketball playing being one of the more popular ones, to the extent that many pet shops now sell mini basket ball equipment to add to your tank.
