‘He’s got the memory of a goldfish!’ is something you and I have often said about someone who forgets things often. And why do we drag the good name of the poor goldfish into it all? It’s thanks to the long-standing belief that goldfish have a super short, three-second-long to be precise, memory span.
But guess what? According to ABC News, a 15-year old from Adelaide, Australia has debunked this myth completely. Turns out goldfish actually retain far more than we think.
Rory Stokes, a student at the Australian Science and Mathematics School in Adelaide, conducted a simple experiment feeding goldfish only next to a red Lego over a span of weeks and observed keen retention on the part of these hungry fish.
“At first they were a bit scared of it, a bit wary, but by the end of the three weeks, they were actually almost coming before I put the food in.”
Yep, it is official. Fish, goldfish included, are intelligent creatures and even if you do keep them in a tank, they say that giving them a complicated, and regularly changing environment will keep them much more active and far happier.
Also, now you know. If you pull any unsavoury crap in front of your fish and they’re watching, they gon’ remember that shit, bros.