How Smart is a Goldfish?

There is a popular myth that goldfish can only remember things for 3 seconds. That is not true. If you own a goldfish you have probably figured out that your little orange pet remembers something very important, when it is food time! 

Rory Stokes proved the 3 second myth wrong at only 15 years old. He knew better than to believe everything he heard, and so he conducted an experiment. He put a red Lego block in his goldfish's tank every time he fed it. It only took three weeks before the fish caught on and started to swim to the Lego block looking for food. He stopped using the Lego block, but a week later the fish still knew that the block meant food!

Rory discovered that goldfish could remember things for up to a week, but scientists have discovered that goldfish can remember much longer than that! Some scientists trained goldfish by playing music at dinner time. They let the goldfish go into the wild, and SIX MONTHS LATER they used a loud speaker to play the dinner time music. THE GOLDFISH CAME BACK!

Scientists are only just starting to understand fish intelligence. The Manta ray is thought to be the smartest fish in the sea, and there is more and more proof that they could compete with mammals for level of intelligence. 

So is it time to start bringing your goldfish to school with you? Do you think you should start writing fishy math problems on the side of the tank? Probably not, but your fishy little buddy is much smarter than you think.