# Fish and headaches
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 20, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687 "2002-08-20T01:43:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ramonkind99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramonkind99)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687/1 "2002-08-20T01:43:00Z")
Quick my millions. I have a question of vast importance. Can fish, goldfish really(however any kind of fish knowledge will suffice), get headaches? I must know so I can prove one of those really annoying people who think they know everything but really don’t, wrong. Thanks.
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-Ramon
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### Author:  [@ramonkind99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramonkind99)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2002, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687/2 "2002-08-20T20:09:57Z")
anybody, anybody? Don’t all rush to answer my question at once here.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687/3 "2002-08-20T20:29:38Z")
Well, there’s still debate as to whether fish feel pain or not, so what you’r asking is whether they feel a specific pain.
Personally since they exhibit avoidance behavior to noxious stimuli, I think they feel pain. so if you noxiously stimulate their heads, I’m convinced they’ll feel head pain. YMMV
QtM, MD
(Although a Ph.D in icthyology might help you more)
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2002, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687/4 "2002-08-20T20:32:31Z")
I think we all assumed that you were drunk last night, so we were ignoring you. 😃
Wellll…fish are vertebrates, and people are vertebrates, and people get headaches, and what causes headaches is still mostly a mystery to science, although they’re pretty sure it has something to do with either the central nervous system or the circulatory system, or both, so since fish have central nervous systems and circulatory systems, just like people, I would assume that yes, they can get headaches.
But I’m quite certain that nobody has ever done any research on whether fish get headaches, so I don’t know how in the world you could prove it one way or another to your friend.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fish-and-headaches/124687/5 "2002-08-20T23:20:18Z")
Question is, do _female_ fish ever use the old “I got a headache” excuse?🙂