Researchers have taught fish to solve basic math puzzles using colored shapes projected on the back of their tanks.
In the training phase, the scientists showed a fish in a tank an image of up to five squares, circles, and triangles that were all either blue or yellow. The animals had 5 seconds to memorize the number and color of the shapes; then a gate opened, and the fish had to choose between two doors: one with an additional shape and the other with one fewer shape.
Only six of the eight cichlids and four of the eight stingrays successfully completed their training. But those that made it through testingWhen shown three blue shapes, for example, the animals correctly chose the door with four blue shapes, instead of two, with over 96% and 82% accuracy for stingrays and cichlids, respectively. Both species found subtraction slightly more difficult than addition on all the tests—a feeling likely shared by most toddlers.
“It certainly didn’t blow my mind that they’re capable of doing it,” says Culum Brown, a behavioral ecologist at Macquarie University who was not involved in the study. “But the fact that they could separate these two strategies out was really cool.” “Many people think that they’re really stupid—fish in general,” Schluessel says. “They actually do have personalities … and they also can learn quite complex tasks.”
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