Do Fish Have Feelings/emotions?

[sawickib]

I dont believe you need to insult anybody by insinuating they have no life, all they did was state their sources as you asked. IMO with factual proof fish show happiness when you come up to the tank with food, their happy theyre eating that day knowing they dont have to go hungry, and when you spend time just watching your fish you see how they interact with eachother and you know they communicate to one another without the use of vocal cords, they do do that and i just have a gut feeling they are more than brainless jellyfish, just my opinion you dont have to listen to it though, i also believe in freedom of opinion this topic is similar to creationism vs evolutionism, no ones going to win because theres not hard factual proof for either side, but from my observations fish are very capable of expressing emotions.
 
Sorry it posted twice lol

 

[star4]

Whoa!! there seems to be confusion as to what is an emotion here. OK so if pain is not an emotion what about anger then!! you see anger in fish, particularly cichlids.  Head shaking is a response to something that makes them angry or something they do not like. My one oscar will do it when he see's the water change bucket. Some cichlids will attack the gravel vac - aggression/anger at their territory being invaded. Stress on fish can cause diseases that we are all familiar with. 
 
The problem with asking for scientific proof to things that caring fishkeepers observe on a daily basis and actually build up a kind of relationship with a fish is totally impossible, because it is something that scientists are not interested in doing, after all its just a fish.

 

[TallTree01]

It depends on the fish. Some fish are smarter than others. I love them all though.

 

[malfunction]

Only read them briefly, admittedly, because I have a life, but none of them seemed to refer to emotion, but rather instinctive behaviour such as fleeing through fear which no-one would ever deny fish possess. You only need to walk up to your tank too quickly with your arms waving about a bit to see how instinctive a fish's primordial fear is. It does, however, have nothing to with the OP's original question of "emotions like happiness", which I was referring to, and what most people think of when discussing 'emotion'. The fact you've hijacked the thread with your Mills and Boon definition of 'pain' is where the confusion lies.

Erm, I just want to check I understand this properly. You demonstrated you had a life...by logging onto an internet forum at 11pm on a Friday night simply to tell me I don't have a life? If that's having a life then I've been doing it wrong for a long, long time. Also, you really should read the OP's post in its entirety before posting. Note that it specifically mentions basic emotions such as fear. If you think fear is not an emotion, then I'm happy to post links to those references that you like so much.

Many of them, also, were dealing with intelligence, not emotion. Go back to those links if you've got time and pull out a single quote saying fish have emotions. Then, if one exists, we can start to look at how the study was conducted and by whom to see if it's a creditable source.

Perhaps you should've read them more carefully before posting. If you had you would've noticed that, even amongst scientists, there is dispute about how to define an emotion. One approach is to define it as having the cognitive ability to learn from a previously encountered stimulus by modifying behaviour. So, it should come as no surprise that some of the studies I listed subscribe to this approach. Yes, I could pull out a quote for you, but to be honest, I really can't be bothered. If you lack the impetus to read the literature for yourself, I have no intention of doing it for you.

Here's a definition of emotion I pulled from the web: "instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge."

You do realise that your point is entirely self contradictory don't you? You're claiming that the fish can't be displaying emotion because their behaviours are instinctive and seemingly require little thought. I'm pretty sure that's a textbook definition of emotion.

there would generally be a correlation throughout nature between brain size and overall intelligence.

And presumably, you have references to scientific literature to prove this?

"It's ability to experience emotions" is highly debatable, you're right, but your use of the possessive pronounce "It's" with an apostrophe is undoubtedly wrong, because its already-possessive nature means it doesn't require one.

Oh God - there's a misplaced apostrophe in my post!!! Whatever will I do??? The world is clearly going to end!!!!!! I'm guessing this was your attempt to be smart and score a cheap point. However, it probably would've been more effective if you hadn't used a hyphen incorrectly. If you're going to correct someone else's spelling, punctuation or grammar, ensure yours is in order first.

Anyhow, why are you so combative? Nothing wrong with disagreeing with people, but you really don't have to act like a hedgehog crawled up your anal cavity.

 

[fluttermoth]

Locked for mod review.