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Fish Can Count to Four

Posted by samzenpus on from the incredible-mr.-limpet dept.

Khemist writes "Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four. Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby. This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability."

5 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Or not.. by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Neurons fire when a certain threshhold of other neurons are firing around them, does that mean they can "count"? It's an electrochemical reaction, not intelligence.

    1. Re:Or not.. by Ed+Avis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim." -- Dijkstra

      I think a similar principle applies to this experiment. They showed that goldfish can count to four. Whether this signifies 'intelligence' in some abstract sense is a different question, and not really relevant here.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  2. I;m not sure by techpawn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not sure if the can count but I think my betta fish is learning how to lift the gate that separates it from the other betta in the dual betta tank. A few minutes after I close the gate he's there at the bottom trying to lift it. I know fish are smarter than most give them credit for, thank god there not a reverse scuba suit...

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
    1. Re:I;m not sure by Rogue+Haggis+Landing · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The betta I had as a kid could recognize me. When I opened the lid to his little tank he would come to the surface on the right side, where I would drop food. He wouldn't come when my brother (who never fed him) did the same thing. We were both about the same height, same hair and skin coloring, etc., so that's pretty clever, at least for a fish. Hell, my own father still can't tell us apart. I suppose I should have fed him more often.

      Anyway, the point is that fish aren't mindless automatons like everyone thinks. They have a (limited) ability to learn (simple) things.

    2. Re:I;m not sure by matria · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One summer an orb spinner spider build her web above the porch stairs. I began feeding her when she and the bugs were small; I'd toss them into her web. Towards the end of summer, she was huge, no longer maintained her web, and she would come down from under the eves to the bottom of the matted mess that was left whenever I stepped on the stairs, waiting for me to toss her something, but not for anyone else.