Re: Fish feelings...

["Bolton Museum, Art Gallery & Aquarium" <bolnathist@gn.apc.org>]

>  He claimed that carp and oscars have the intelligence of dogs, and
> that oscars in particular are emotional.
In my opinion a tin of sardines has more intelligence than your 
average dog.
On to fish emotions, what has to be considered is if there is the 
evolutionary drive for emotion to develop in a fish.
Unfortunately I don't think this can be proven.
Fish such as Apistos and other Cichlids which have complex 
social lives and live in a fluctuating environment have an 
evolutionary need to react to that environment in an appropriate 
way.
So they do have a greater capacity to 'learn', in effect.
The predator avoidance strategies used have to be more varied 
than, let's say, a Clupeid fish (Herrings etc.)
The very fact that they show brood care means they have to have a 
greater 'awareness', but the fact that female Apistos will guard 
Daphnia swarms etc. shows that they are just reacting to an 
instinctive drive. A highly developed and modifiable instinctive drive 
admittedly but we shouldn't confuse it with emotion.
I am being careful with my usage of these terms because I am not 
a Behaviourologist, even though I find animal behaviour fascinating. 
It is difficult not to be anthropomorphic about our fish, because we 
ourselves are pre-programmed to react to certain percepted 
situations in a certain way, and to be honest as long as the fish are 
cared for to the best of our abilities it doesn't really matter if it 
increases our appreciation and awareness of the natural world.
Pete Liptrot
Bolton Museum Aquarium
Le Mans Crescent, Bolton BL1 1SE
01204 332200


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