When it comes to school smarts, mammals aren’t the only ones that deserve recognition! Although fish are some of the most popular and widely kept animals in captivity in the world, historically outnumbering even dogs and cats in the United States, we often ignore the intellectual and social capabilities of these impressive animals.
Humans often struggle to empathize with fish because of their different appearances, environments, and lifestyles from our own. Adding to their often hidden, underwater mystery, more than 80% of the world’s oceans remain unexplored by 2024.
Studies Show Fish Are More Intelligent Than Previously Realized
What scientists have learned so far about fish, however, may be surprising, and only confirms that the age-old myth that fish have 3-second memories is categorically untrue! The term “fish” includes animals of many different kinds, from smaller bony fish (like zebrafish) to larger sharks and rays, living in fresh and saltwater.
For example, fish have similar brain networks as land mammals we traditionally associate with complex intellectual ability, emotion, and pain. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) also agrees that fish feel pain and can suffer in the same ways that mammals can. Studies have also shown that fish participate in complex behaviors, including recognizing others as individuals, engaging in paternal care, d grooming each other, and building complicated social groups. For example, some species of cichlids form monogamous pairs and have helpers, creating social groups of both sexes who participate in defending the territory and offspring.
Fish May Be Affectionate, Too
Studies on zebrafish have shown that fish prefer to be closer to others; even just visual contact with another fish can be used as a reward to reinforce a behavior in a learning task. Similarly, some fish species have demonstrated that physical touch can decrease their stress levels. In motivational assessment studies performed in captivity, goldfish will swim against a current to access plants, and Mozambique tilapia will push against a door to access social partners. Fish can also sense fear in other fish and become afraid; this ability is regulated by oxytocin, the brain chemical that is responsible for empathy in humans.
We hope that these fish facts will help you understand that there is often a lot more than initially meets the eye when it comes to marine life. By 2024, we know that fish are sentient, intelligent, social, and highly capable of suffering and feeling pain. They do not belong in tiny glass tanks. They deserve the freedom to swim in a space that has remained largely unexplored by humans where they truly belong—in the wild, vast, and mysterious oceans that we may never fully understand—and that is OK.
To help protect fish, we implore our readers to say “no” to visiting aquariums and not to support the private pet trade of fish in any way.
- Read more about the wonders of fish in our 2023 report, Oceans Away from Home: The Suffering of Fish in Captivity.
- Explore our aquarium investigations (PDF) here.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Devan
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