I have an interesting question

[KimmyFishy89]

Please don't get me wrong, I love to think that I am giving my fish a good home (Compared to the over crowding tanks at my lfs) but do fish have the capability of emotions? I mean there brains are probably the size of a needle point or so. I know they can be scared, but I think that is more of an instinct (Big fish=pain, Net=bad). So I am just curious if they have the capability of happyness or sadness.

 

[Cian McLiam]

I think they do have a feeling of 'well being' if not happiness but when my Angels havent been fed for a day or too, they wag their tails like puppies when I open the lid so I think thats a good clue!
Probably just excitement, but if they feel excitement then they must have hormones to create the feeling so why not mood hormones like us?

Ken

 

[BlackWolf0503]

Depending on what you read Fish can or cannot fell pain. Their was an article posted here somewhere about dyed fish & a study done on weather or not they can feel pain. I think they can. Their is also the flip side of that coin-Happiness. I think fish something like that. Not what we as humans feel happy but a fish level of happy. We all know they feel hungry & if they've ever been chased by a bigger fish their probably scared. Not on a human level of these feeling but on a fish level. I think it's all subjective as to their feelings. Feeling not as we humans feel them but on a Fish level.

 

[cassandra]

yah i think they do they swim fast when happy i think!!??

 

[aquamanis]

I,m pretty sure fish have some sort of emotions and thier body colours reflect this. Happy fish seem to be more vibrant and colourfull. Some fish loose all thier colour when you first bring them home. After a day or two they regain the colours they had in the shop.

 

[Jo]

People on this forum are always chatting about fish looking unhappy, be it stressed, or ill, or whatever, so surely if a fish has the emotions for making it unhappy/not feel right, then it must have the ability to feel "happy"

Not what we as humans feel happy but a fish level of happy

I agree with what BlackWolf says about them not feeling human happiness, but they must feel something..?

 

[Alien Anna]

Fish's brains don't have a highly developed limbic system (emotion centre) like higher mammals etc. So that means they cannot feel complex emotions like humans.

However, they wouldn't survive long if they didn't feel emotions like fear and if they didn't feel pain - anyone who says they don't doesn't understand animal behaviour at all. Fear and pain are useful things because they get us (or a fish) out of danger.

Anxiety is also essential to survival - if the fish wasn't anxious about being eaten, it would probably get eaten. OTOH, fear, pain and anxiety are not things a fish should sense all the time and if they do, it tends to adversely affect their immune systems and they get sick.

Fish that care for their young or mate for life will experience attachment, even if not actually affection. They will also become familiar with an owner and recognise them as a good thing, rather than a dangerous thing.

I would think the closest thing to happiness a fish experiences is comfort. In good water, with good food and the plants or caves the fish requires, a fish experiences minimum fear, pain and anxiety and is able to care for their young, mate and live the way they were intended. I'm a bit like that myself

 

[Waterloo Kid]

I find it intersting that most people relate the size of a brain with the ability to function at a 'higher' level. In that case what on earth do the likes of whales and elephants think of us!

Why are there so few whales left? Easy, they got bored with being slaughtered by primative apes, built a time portal and left!

WK

 

[Alien Anna]

WK,

I find it intersting that most people relate the size of a brain with the ability to function at a 'higher' level. In that case what on earth do the likes of whales and elephants think of us!

It isn't so much the size as the complexity of the brain. Fish have significantly less complex brains than mammals, but they're still pretty complex compared to other creatures.

You also have to consider the body:brain ratio. Humans have enormous brains for their overall size, whales and dophins have pretty large brains and an elephants brain, sadly, is not so large when you consider the vast body size.

I don't know what animals think of us, but if I were an animal, I wouldn't be impressed by the IQ. You know what they say about people with very high IQs - no commonsense!

Why are there so few whales left? Easy, they got bored with being slaughtered by primative apes, built a time portal and left!

I wish that were true. Sadly, I think most of them got made into lipstick.

 

[Jo]

built a time portal and left!

maybe, (to steal from hitchhikers guide) like the dolphibns, they have been trying to warn us all this time about the mice setting us up as an experiment and how the world was about to be buldozed, but being slow stuipd humans (in their estimation) them jumping through hoops wasn't getting through to us, so they left, just seconds before the world was made into an intergalactic highway..?

 

[Lateral Line]

>>> intergalactic highway..?

Hyperspace bypass.

 

[Waterloo Kid]

Welcome to the twisted world of the surreal!
Gone a tiny bit off topic here!

WK

 

[KimmyFishy89]

Hmm you all do bring up good points.

I think my angel fish has a personality. My bed is right across my tank (Yea, its better than watching TV ) and when I wake up and sit out of bed, I see him swimming back and forth across the front of the tank. When I get up and get close to the tank he stops and stares at me, looking all cute . And when the filter and airation stone go off, he knows its chow time.

I wuv my angel, I even have a song for him.

"Angel, of mine"