The Myth; 3 Seconds!”

• Main Author: Danabas, D. and M., Kocabaş
• Other Authors: Su Ürünleri Fakültesi, orcid:0000-0002-8947-3749
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Myth; fish; fish memory; 3 seconds; Labyrinth; Pyramid; Anguilla anguilla; European eel; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12406/322

In the conventional myth, the memory of a fish is very short or just 3 seconds. This myth has been mentioned for a lot of anecdotes, idioms like drop as a carp or mullet, comics, humiliations of people, etc. That’s right, is it true or false? There are some researches about this subject. Although there are great differences between the organisms at the top and the bottom of the bio-pyramid, some developments of learning and further remember observed in different fish species (goldfish, Carrasius auratus; European barracuda, Sphyraena sphyraena; Tilapia, Tilapia sp.; Australia rainbow trout, Melanotaenia eachamensis; crimson-spotted rainbowfish, Melanotaenia duboulayi; paradise fish, Macropodus opercularis; archerfish, Toxotes chatareus, and moray eel, Muraena helena) show that there should be a significant learning and storage in their minds. The goldfish (C. auratus) and European barracuda (S. sphyraena) has able to find their feed or baits in a specially prepared labyrinth after the months. The Australia rainbow trout (M. eachamensis) has been remembered the place of pathway on a dragnet, and the crimson-spotted rainbowfish (M. duboulayi) has showed learned escape behaviour from a net mechanism after a year. The paradise fish (M. opercularis) has able to remember which species have harmless after three months. The archerfish (T. chatareus) has able to remember the experimental human faces. In these two experiments, the fishes have made correct choice in 71% of 44 human faces being in an experimental pool. However, the moray eel (M. helena) have recognized a human after 3 years. On the other hands, in the fish migrations to spawn, the fish species [the salmons, Salmo salar as anadromous; the European eel, Anguilla anguilla as catadromous; the mullets, Mugil sp. as oceanadromous; and the pearl mullet, Alburnus (Chalcalburnus) tarichi and Danube bleak, Alburnus (Chalcalburnus) calcoides as limnodromous] can make a trip to places their hatching. Obviously, it is not possible that these trips will take place without a creative or learned memory for lives. In conclusion, various skills can be taught to fish by different methods even if it takes a long time. These facts clearly prove the existence of non-volatile memory. In the clearness of these evaluations, the myth of “fish memory” is only a prejudgment.