Smarter than your average goldfish?

In memory of Nemo who passed away last night into goldfishy heaven, I'm reproducing this post from two years ago...

We have in addition to our other myriad of pets, a goldfish. Not one of those pricey pet store ones, just your average run of the mill throw a ball into a glass jar at a fair type goldfish. He or she (not sure which...lol) has managed to survive 2 years and that is with several attempts on his life where his little plastic fish tank was knocked over. About six months ago I decided to get "Nemo" a new tank, mainly to stop the cats from trying to knock over his bowl. I chose an inexpensive hexagon shaped one that had a filter, a step up from his former filterless habitat, mainly in the hope that the cats couldn't perch on top of this tank given the shape. (and it was cheap....after all...it is for one fish)

My fear of course was after being moved into upscale goldfish housing he would die. Nemo however has grown and seems to be much happier, infact he's developed quite a personality. A personality in a fish? Yes, I am not crazy others have witnessed his behavior. When seeing a person approach his bowl he wiggles himself to an extreme, we know this as to mean "FEED ME!" When the cats approach his tank, he swims around the whole exterior of the tank, which makes them chase him, which causes me to yell at the cats, and Nemo goes to the top and blows bubbles, as to mean "HAHA CATS!". If a cat puts his paws up to where Nemo is he retreats, if a human puts his finger up to side of the aquarium Nemo goes to it.

A human putting his finger up to the side of the tank, then creates the "FEED ME!" frenzy dance. He seems to be able to tell when it is a new person near his tank. If I feed him he stops, yet if someone else approaches the tank even though I've just fed him, he preforms the "FEED ME!" frenzy dance.

Did you feed the fish? Is a regular question around here, and when you answer YES!, the response is usually "Well HE said you didn't".

So now you may think my whole household is crazy.....but being me....of course after thinking about this I did some research....

By Mark Henderson,
Science Correspondent

IT IS time for the scales to fall from our eyes: scientists have claimed not only that goldfish have a memory span of up to three months, but that they can also tell the time.
The fish, previously believed to have a memory of just a few seconds, can distinguish between different times of day and can also be taught to follow a routine, according to research.

Scientists at Plymouth University have successfully trained the fish to collect food at particular times of day, showing the popular notion of the three-second memory to be very fishy indeed.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that fish are much more sentient and intelligent than had generally been assumed.

Recent research has suggested that fish feel pain when they are caught on a hook, can be manipulative and socially aware, have long memories and are able to recognise their shoal-mates.

The rest of the article HERE

So becareful....they are watching and they are obviously smarter than we gave them credit for....