Goldfish

[nona suomy]

It is said that Goldfish have a three second memory but who in the world came up with this and how could they possibly prove it?

[sft42]

It's rubbish.......if you have ever seen fish at feeding time then you'll see that they know that certain triggers are a prompt that food will be introduced soon (lifting of tank hood etc.) so if they only had a 3 second memory they would be oblivious to this and it would be a new discovery each time.

[gilf]

There is a difference between memory and behaviour such as feeding patterns. In the same way that you dont have to remember to breath etc the fish know about feeding. But thats not to say I have any idea why somebody has come up with the 3 seconds stuff.

[Moog]

As gilf says there are different parts of the memory which do different things, I always thought the Goldfish 3 second thing refered to short term memory which in humans allows you to remember a small amount of information such as a phone number or something for a short period of time, however I'm pretty certain a goldfish's memory isn't as complex as a human's... why would a goldfish need to remember a phone number anyway!?

[nona suomy]

In case I gave it to him :o/

[Squirrel]

Here's one of the other Answerbank questions on the topic:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/DisplayAnswers.go?q
uestion_id=29209&category_id=18&index=6

The topic is open to speculation.

[answerbankin]

even if they can remember they are still aint the sharpest tools in the box and they are boring as f**k.