Do Fish Have Memory?

I guess you could say that my interest in fish started at a young age with the purchase of my first aquarium. I stocked the aquarium with a variety of South American ciclids and plenty of rocks to give them places to hide. Some nights I would sit in front of that aquarium for hours watching my fish and observing their behavior. When some of my buddies would come over they would look into my aquarium and not see any fish. They would ask where are they? I would try to explain to them that the fish were afraid of them, and did not recognize their faces,so the fish would hide. As I approached the tank the fish would recognize my face and come to the surface to be fed. My friends and I thought that was really cool, but never gave the fish much credit for being that smart.

Over my lifetime I have owned many aquariums and have observed this behavior in a variety of species, however, I never gave it much thought until several years ago. I was sitting in a waiting room reading a fishing magazine. I don’t remember the name of the magazine, but the article was about a biologist who did a study of how fish respond to the same lure over a period of time. The biologist studied bass in a controlled tank and observed that over a period of time, no matter how hungry the fish were, the bass would learn that a particular lure was not food and would no longer respond to that lure. Even after months of not showing the fish the lure and starving the fish, they still knew that the lure was not food, proving that fish do have long term memory.

According to Fish and Fisheries, there are over 500 research papers devoted to proving that fish are smart, and that they have long-term memories and sophisticated social structures. Furthermore, in the Spring 2005 issue of Animal Times, the following fish facts are noted: “Fish are more intelligent than they appear. In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of ‘higher’ vertebrates, including non-human primates,” says Culum Brown, a University of Edinburgh biologist who is studying the evolution of congnition in fish. Their long term memories help fish keep track of their surroundings. Their spatial memory, equal in all respects to any other vertebrate, allows them to create cognitive maps that guide them through their watery world. Oxford University’s Dr. Theresa Burt de Perera has discovered that blind Mexican cave fish construct detailed “mental maps,” which helps them detect changes in their surroundings. “We’re now finding that they are very capable of learning and remembering, and possess a range of cognitive skills that would surprise many people.” “Fish can learn from watching more experienced fish and they are capable of learning quickly,” explains Dr. Chris Glass, director of marine conservation at the Manomet Center for Conservation Science, who discovered that fish can learn to avoid nets by watching what other fish do.

What does all this mean to the average fisherman? Not much, if you fish with live bait, but if you fish with artificial, this could help you a great deal. Have you ever noticed how schooling fish will sometimes turn off of a lure, right in the middle of a good bite? Have you ever had a school of reds that you have been catching for weeks suddenly stop biting your lucky lure? Or have you ever wondered why a new lure was hot when it first came on the market, but over the years it seems to lose its magic? Maybe this is just fish learning. Once, while fishing the Gulf Coast of Louisiana for schooling seatrout, our guide informed us that if the trout stopped biting on a particular color of jig, just change the color and they would start biting again, and you know what? He was right.

This is nothing new to lure manufacturers. Have you ever wondered why lure companies make lures in such a variety of colors and sizes? Mirro-Lure found that if you changed the sound or the pitch of a lure, like the “Top- Dog” it was like inventing a new lure. Change in the lure industry is not so much to keep up with what the angler demands as it is to keep up with the fish’s demand. If you think this is all nonsense, then get yourself a large aquarium, put a large-mouth bass in it and see for yourself just how smart they really are. It might just change your thinking about fish and fishing. Pro bass fishermen are always trying new lures and new techniques. I have heard tournament fishermen say that they are always looking for something that the fish have never seen. So the next time you are out fishing and your lucky lure isn’t do- ing the job, remember, change is good.