Fish Intelligence & Learning Experience?

[FishTrainerGuy]

About 8 months ago, my 9-year old son won two goldfish at a school fair. After watching them for a while, it was apparent that there is something going on in their little minds. Ever since then I've been fascinated by fish intelligence. After a little research, I discovered there is quite a bit of scientific evidence that fish are smarter than people give them credit for.

So about six months ago, on a whim, we purchased a handsome calico fantail goldfish. We named him Albert (short for Albert Einstein), and set about to see what we could teach him. Long story short, he has proven to be a remarkable student in "fish school", and has learned to perform what I consider to be some pretty impressive behaviors.

For starters, he will eat directly from my hand - a simple behavior but one I find strangely gratifying. It gives me a feeling of being much more connected to him - more like the feeling a cat or dog owner experiences I suspect.

More impressive, Albert has learned to swim through a hoop and a tunnel several times as long as his body. Their diameter is not much bigger than his body, so he has to turn on his side and tuck in his fins to squeeze through. It is really amusing to watch! Albert can even push a soccer ball into a goal, and push a football "down field" and across a goal line. No joking. He has learned it all through positive reinforcement and shaping. We've given him small bits of food reward whenever his actions even approximate the desired behavior. Over time we've been able to shape his behavior into some pretty cool tricks.

My son and I have been so intrigued and excited by Albert's success that we've set up a web site devoted to fish intelligence and training. If you want to be amused, check out these photos and videos of Albert doing his tricks:

http://www.fish-school.com/gallery.htm

For anyone still skeptical, we even have a live wabcam on Albert's "show tank." At certain times of day, you can watch me putting Albert through his paces:

http://fishschool.ww.com

I'd love feedback from people on their experiences with fish intelligence and training.

Do you have fish that show signs of intelligence? Have you trained them to do anything interesting?

What species seem most intelligent?

Do you know of other evidence for fish intelligence? I found a bunch of links to articles and scientific studies on fish intelligence, which I've listed here http://www.fish-school.com/intelligence.htm. Do you know of others?

Please don't bother to tell me I've got too much time on my hands and/or "get a life." I hear this enough from my wife . I figure if nothing else, these efforts have been a worthwhile learning experience and a great bonding opportunity for my son and me!

Dean Pomerleau
Pittsburgh, PA

 

[dskidmore]

I think all of us have seen simple behaviors like fish that learn that opening lids mean feeding time. How much of that is "learning" and how much "conditioning" I can't say.

I think guppies are the stupidest fish. They're not even afraid of the net, or falling gravel, they just act curious and swim up to see what's going on.

I have heard of others training angelfish to eat out of the hand, or swim in a particular corner to ask for food. And of course we all have heard about the feats of occupi.

 

[DepotFish]

Depot used to jump out of the water for food but I haven't had her do it for a while. She seems to be able to recognize me as the one who feeds her and my roommate as just another person who doesn't feed her. If I turn music on she will swim to the side of the tank that the radio is closest to. She knows that during her weekly water changes or whenever I am cleaning the tank that she must swim in the net and wait for me to put it in the holding tank then swim out. She seems to trust me with this and doesn't struggle. She shows lots of intelligence signs. She's a common goldfish.
The bettas can make their way through mazes. I am amazed at how tightly bonded my female bettas are. Nobody should put intelligence past a fish just because they are different.

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

DepotFish,

How old is Depot? It would seem to me that some of the behaviors she exhibits are quite sophisticated, and might not be possible for a very young and immature fish.

Have you (or anyone else) seen a correlation between the size/age of fish and the intelligent behavior they exhibit?

 

[DepotFish]

She's four and I've had her since she was a few months old. She learned to jump for food soon after I got her because I worked with her a lot to get her to do this. The swimming into the net thing is probably because she had a two gallon tank as a small fish so water changes were routine. I'm sure age has to do with her behavior as she has learned it over time, I'm not sure what you mean by size though, Depot's kind of a runt.

 

[crazycat]

this is toooo funny! i LOVE it! how big is albert's tank? it looks small on the webcam...

 

[Scottm]

its not a fresh water fish but my percula clown is immensly intelligent. he studies me as much as I study him.

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

Depotfish,

I guess number of brain cells may be independent of physical size, but I have the feeling that small fish - either small species (e.g. tetras) or young, and hence small members of larger species (like young goldfish) will have more trouble learning than their larger, more mature counterparts.

This is just a hunch though, based on limited experience with human children (who obviously have more difficulty learning than older humans) and young goldfish (school fair size) vs Albert, who was estimated to be about 3 years old by the fish store expert where I bought him.

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

this is toooo funny! i LOVE it! how big is albert's tank? it looks small on the webcam...

Cool. You checked out Albert's webcam! I've seen that here has been quite a few hits. For anyone else who wants to check him out, here is the link again:

http://fishschool.ww.com

[But don't bother looking until around 10am eastern time tomorrow, when he goes "live" again].

Regarding Alberts "show tank" size as seen on the webcam - yes, you are correct. It is rather small - 5 gal. It is easier to train him in a smaller tank - less distractions. The "home tank" where he spends most of his time is larger (10gal) and will soon be upgraded to a 29gal or 55gal, like the tank my son has at home for our twin albino oscars.

P.S. Anyone who does check out Albert's webcam, please click on the feedback link and tell me what you think, or post here about it.

Thanks!

 

[flamingonhot]

Octopi are definitely one of the fastest learners on the planet, they have to be since they live only about ayear, but they aren't fish lol.

Fish are definitely smart in some ways. Simple stuff like swimming the length of a tank is easily forgotten. Some person had pacus in a 3 fot long tank, they then put them in a 6 foot long tank and would only swim 3 feet across and go back. But after about 2 minutes they would start to forget and swim the whole distance.

But stuff like seeing aperson over time is imprinted in there brain. My clownfish adn lionfish dont like other people, they only like me and my cousin. Because they see both of us alot. I feed them so they associate me with food. My clown eats out of my hand, my lion waits at the top of the tank in a specific corner and if i tries i could handfeed it, but I dont want to get stung lol.

My other cousins oscar will swim up to the glass, when you open your mouth it opes its mouths. it does a lot of things lol.

 

[MT79]

She seems to be able to recognize me as the one who feeds her

I've also noticed this w/ my maroon clown fish. She gets extremely annoyed when someone other than me looks at her, or one of her anemones, to closely. Great thread Fishtrainer kudos

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

its not a fresh water fish but my percula clown is immensly intelligent. he studies me as much as I study him.

Thanks for the anecdote. I've long suspected that saltwater fish are at least as smart as freshwater ones, but didn't know for sure.

 

[An t-iasg]

I was just thinking about fish intelligence the other day. I've had a number of bettas, and one I just got recently, Kloey, has done things that the others haven't done, and I was wondering if it was a sign that he is a little more intelligent. I noticed right away that this betta was very active. He investigated everything in the tank very thoroughly. Most bettas are curious, but this one was even more so.

All my bettas have a "bed" of java moss or Monoselenium tenerum that they love, and they try to bite me when I remove it for a water change. Kloey (in addition to biting!) will spend about 10 minutes "rearranging" the bed to his liking after I put it back. The others haven't done that. He appears to make an "entrance" and an "exit".

Kloey also chases the gravel vac around when I do a water change. The other bettas stay away from it, but not Kloey - he's right there chasing/biting it, which makes it a little harder on me! I've also caught him a few times with a plant leaf in his mouth! The others don't bother the plants at all. If there are some roots exposed, sometimes Kloey bites them until he uproots them. This is after I've trimmed and replanted some stem plants, so they aren't strongly rooted yet, and I've missed a tucking in a few roots. He also loves to turn his body sideways and swim through the plants that way. Tonight, as I scrubbed up the CO2 diffuser and returned it to the tank, he went over to investigate as it started bubbling again - those are some tiny bubbles, and they caught his attention.

Do any of these things make him smarter? I don't know, but I've never seen a betta more aware of, and react to, his surroundings. I have to add, though, that of all my bettas, he seems to react to me the least. Hmm..maybe that does make him smart!

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

I don't know, but I've never seen a betta more aware of, and react to, his surroundings. I have to add, though, that of all my bettas, he seems to react to me the least. Hmm..maybe that does make him smart!

Those are some interesting behaviors you describe in Kloey, your Betta. It definitely sounds like he's got more going on "upstairs" than your other Bettas. I chose Albert, my now well-trained goldfish, by looking for similar behavior in the pet shop display tank. Albert was the goldfish that seemed most inquisitive. For example, he would persist in tracking my finger when held up to the glass for much longer than his tank mates.

Perhaps Kloey your Betta could be trained to perform interesting tricks. There is a lot of scientific evidence that Bettas can be trained using a reinforcement paradigm, as described below. For Bettas though, it appears the reward they prefer is access to a mirror or exposure to other Bettas, rather than food. They even like to "play it up" for an audience!

--Dean

-----------------------
J Comp Psychol. 2003 Mar;117(1):111-8. Related Articles, Links


Using visual reinforcement to establish stimulus control of responding of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens).

Wirth O, Lattal KA, Hopko S.

Department of Psychology, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, USA. owirth@cdc.gov

Stimulus control of ring swimming was studied with male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) using 2-component multiple schedules in which the components were correlated with the presence or absence of air bubbles in the water. In Experiment 1, either response-independent mirror presentations or extinction was juxtaposed with immediate response-dependent mirror presentations. Rates of ring swimming generally were higher with immediate reinforcement than with either response-independent mirror presentations or extinction. In Experiment 2, different durations of response-dependent mirror presentations were juxtaposed. Generally, higher rates of ring swimming occurred with 15-s than with 0-, 1-, or 3-s durations. Results demonstrate that stimulus control of responding can be established with these fish under several conditions of differential reinforcement.

PMID: 12735371

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J Comp Physiol Psychol. 1977 Apr;91(2):233-44. Related Articles, Links

Display reinforcement in the Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens: aggressive motivation or curiosity?

Bols RJ.

Fish were tested in a runway T-maze apparatus. The experiments compared performance (measured by swimming speed and percent choice correct) to a variety of stimuli in the goal box. The stimulus that evoked the most vigorous aggressive display (a live conspecific) supported the highest level of performance; a stimulus that evoked no display (a marble) failed to sustain operant behavior. Stimuli that induced some aggression, but also some escape (live nondisplaying fish), supported performance at reduced levels. These results implicate aggression and not curiosity as the primary motivating factor. They also show that the responsiveness of the stimulus is a critical aspect of reinforcement and that the level of performance is determined by escape tendencies as well as aggression. It is proposed that failure of a stimulus to provide appropriate feedback constitutes an aversive event.

PMID: 558228

--------------------------
J Comp Psychol. 1986 Sep;100(3):279-84. Related Articles, Links


Socially mediated learning in male Betta splendens.

Bronstein PM.

Seven experiments showed that in the absence of social stimulation male Siamese fighting fish would approach any of several visual and spatial cues that had previously been paired with the animals' mirror images. These findings demonstrate that learned modifications of swimming mediated by social stimuli are possible in Bettas. The present results also suggest that territorial defense in some teleosts may, in part, be mediated by the association of social cues with visual and spatial stimuli.

PMID: 3769447

----------------------
Behav Processes. 2003 Jul 31;63(3):171-175. Related Articles, Links


Instrumental conditioning of choice behavior in male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens).

Craft BB, Velkey AJ, Szalda-Petree A.

Department of Psychology, 200 S. Capitol St., Mississippi College, 39058, Clinton, MS, USA

Despite the differences in the response of male Betta splendens toward various stimuli, no research has attempted to determine the preference for a live conspecific versus a mirror presentation. A submerged T-maze was used to present both stimuli to healthy male B. splendens (N=16). The results indicated that subjects' start box and swimway latencies decreased significantly over the 30 trials. Moreover, the analysis of choices demonstrated a modest, but statistically significant, preference for the live conspecific over the mirror presentation. The results are discussed in terms of the stimuli qualities that elicit an aggressive response in B. splendens and the implications for common experimental procedures.

PMID: 12829317

------------------------
Behav Processes. 2003 May 28;63(1):53-61. Related Articles, Links


Timing of presentation of an audience: aggressive priming and audience effects in male displays of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens).

Matos RJ, Peake TM, McGregor PK.

Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University, Tagensvej 16, DK-2200 N, Copenhagen, Denmark

Studies of animal communication often underestimate the presence of individuals other than the signaller-receiver dyad. Signalling interactions often occur in the presence of non-participating individuals (audiences); the effect of these individuals upon the dynamics of interactions has been called the audience effect. Recent studies of fighting fish Betta splendens have shown that the presence of a male audience can increase aggression during interactions. However, in many of these studies males were allowed to see the audience prior to the interaction, thus such pre-exposure may have facilitated aggressive behaviour (aggressive priming). Here we present results of two experiments designed to examine the relative importance of priming and audience effects on the dynamics of aggressive interactions. Males that were pre-exposed showed higher levels of aggression during subsequent interactions regardless of the presence or absence of an audience. When only one of the interactants had been pre-exposed to the audience, the non-exposed male showed similar increases in aggressive behaviour, i.e. matching the level of aggression showed by his opponent. Taken together these results suggest that aggressive priming may have resulted in an over-estimation of the audience effect in previous studies. The results still highlight the importance of social environment in determining the dynamics and outcomes of aggressive contests.

PMID: 12763268

---------------------
Behav Processes. 2003 May 28;63(1):53-61. Related Articles, Links


Timing of presentation of an audience: aggressive priming and audience effects in male displays of Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens).

Matos RJ, Peake TM, McGregor PK.

Department of Animal Behaviour, Zoological Institute, Copenhagen University, Tagensvej 16, DK-2200 N, Copenhagen, Denmark

Studies of animal communication often underestimate the presence of individuals other than the signaller-receiver dyad. Signalling interactions often occur in the presence of non-participating individuals (audiences); the effect of these individuals upon the dynamics of interactions has been called the audience effect. Recent studies of fighting fish Betta splendens have shown that the presence of a male audience can increase aggression during interactions. However, in many of these studies males were allowed to see the audience prior to the interaction, thus such pre-exposure may have facilitated aggressive behaviour (aggressive priming). Here we present results of two experiments designed to examine the relative importance of priming and audience effects on the dynamics of aggressive interactions. Males that were pre-exposed showed higher levels of aggression during subsequent interactions regardless of the presence or absence of an audience. When only one of the interactants had been pre-exposed to the audience, the non-exposed male showed similar increases in aggressive behaviour, i.e. matching the level of aggression showed by his opponent. Taken together these results suggest that aggressive priming may have resulted in an over-estimation of the audience effect in previous studies. The results still highlight the importance of social environment in determining the dynamics and outcomes of aggressive contests.

PMID: 12763268

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[Snuffleupagus]

My Dwarf Puffer only took a couple days of being fed bloodworms with tweezers before the act of moving the tweezers to toward the tank sent him rocking to meet them. He also swims around the front of the tank when I'm there, eying me. He really gives the impression of curiosity in that and other behavior, like the way he will circle a new object with his head pointed towards it, maintaining a slight distance, until he's satisfied as to the next step to take.

My clown loaches have learned that it behooves them to overcome their loachy shyness and preference for bottom feeding if they don't want to miss out on the flake fest. They also do some pretty cool things involving moving rocks around to get at stuff, and they've learned to grab shrimp pellets and make a break with them to get away from the other loaches. Some of this, obviously, is just their natural instinctive behavior, but it is interesting how it has developed in them.

 

[DeFeKt]

To the age old myth of fish only having 20 second memories
MYTH BUSTED!!!!

Also I'll add that i've slowly taught my oscars to jump they're full body length(11") out of the water for food.
we started at 1 inch, and every week or two moved higher and higher.
They also know that when the food is held low above the water, they don't need to jump and now slowly lift they're whole heads out of the water to grab it.
Probably more so instinctive then anything, but it's all good knowledge.

Have also had my gt's for 3 weeks now, and them now hand feeding, even the very cautious female (and new mum).
Although it helps when your feeding them raw kangaroo meat every other day.
They are 5" and 2 1/2 "

Matt.

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

Also I'll add that i've slowly taught my oscars to jump they're full body length(11") out of the water for food.

Holey cow - 11" out of the water! That must make quite a splash. I'd love to see a picture of that.

I've been thinking about training Albert to rise out of the water for food. But my wife would kill me if je gets water all over the wall and floor. Plus I'd be worried one day he's going to get overzealous and end up on the floor when I'm not looking :-(.

Have you thought about holding a hoop above the water to see if they'd jump through that? If they can make it out by 11", a hoop should be no sweat. You could even hold it partially submerged to start with, to get them used to swimming through it, and then raise it out as they get more confident/proficient.

Let me know if you try it!

 

[dskidmore]

What type of food do you use for training? Flake gets mushy fast. Brine is too small hold in your fingers...

 

[illuminum]

Whatever you do use, you should use a very small amount of it as a reward. You don't want to get the fish satiated too early. Also, the fish's reward should be quick and immediate. For example, use just one tiny piece of brine or less than one flake of food as a reward (just enough to make him interested in the food).

Reading all this stuff is really interesting. I'm an undergraduare psych major at USC at the moment and this discussion is ringing alot of bells from my animab behavior class and learning & memory class.

 

[FishTrainerGuy]

What type of food do you use for training? Flake gets mushy fast. Brine is too small hold in your fingers...

We use "baby" size pellets for Albert our calico fantail, and medium size pellets for our larger, albino oscars.

But flakes, "crumbles" or even brine shrimp also work - since the "feeding wand" that comes with the Fish School Training Kit keeps the food in a confined chamber until you release it as reward.

Also, illuminum is right. You don't want to overfeed with the reward. I train Albert several hours each day, since his tank is on my desk at work. To avoid overfeeding him I use only a 2-3 baby pellets per reward. That way he doesn't get filled up, and stays motivated!