# How do we know goldfish have 6 second memories? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472 "2002-12-29T05:21:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/1 "2002-12-29T05:21:59Z")
How do you measure a memory of an animal? Especially one so short? What are the clues that give it away? How do we know it’s not just unbelievably low intelligence, and not short term memory at all? And in fact, is it even true anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/2 "2002-12-29T06:56:48Z")
It’s really simple – if you tell a goldfish something and then ask it to repeat the information back seven seconds later, the fish will not answer you. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![racosun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@racosun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racosun)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/3 "2002-12-29T07:10:41Z")
My goldfish remembers everything I tell him. Once, I told him where I was hiding my car keys, and then one day when I lost them, he told me where they were at. So I doubt that this applies to all goldfish. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/4 "2002-12-29T07:35:51Z")
[Myth:](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4011783,00.html) > [@](#): > > The most silent sufferers are goldfish. Apart from their acute hearing, the five-second memory theory is a myth. “Keeping them in a bowl or a circular tank is just cruel,” says Walker. “They should not swim round in circles but in a straight line at a constant speed. If they are in an empty bowl, they will be unstimulated and depressed.” > > Fish recognise their owners and feeders, says Lynn Gibbons of the London Aquarium. If they are always fed by someone in a yellow shirt, they will come to the surface if a yellow shirt comes near. ---
**Author:** ![fauxpas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/5 "2002-12-29T07:42:15Z")
hmm…Desmostylus…I have noticed those actions with my cockatiel (sp?) ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/6 "2002-12-29T08:38:12Z")
Does this mean that the remake of “Memento” featuring goldfish isn’t going to happen? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/7 "2002-12-29T08:48:15Z")
Holy crap, **Desmostylus**. That article is weird. I now have doubts on whether there’s a single animal in existence who isn’t a complete pansy ass. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/8 "2002-12-29T08:57:54Z")
They aren’t all complete pansy asses. **fauxpas** has a parrot thet can live underwater. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/9 "2002-12-29T10:19:19Z")
Well gee. Many people say one thing, these people say another. Who is right? We may never know… ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/10 "2002-12-29T10:20:16Z")
Okay, I have an old World Book Encyclopaedia, and its entry for “indole butryic acid” (rootex) notes that the substance causes psychotic reactions in guppies. How do you spot a psychotic guppie? Tinfoil over the aerators? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/11 "2002-12-29T10:34:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > \*\*Well gee. Many people say one thing, these people say another. Who is right? We may never know… \*\* I’m more inclined to believe people that deal with live fish daily, like the person from the London Aquarium, rather than people that have just heard the “factoid”. In this case the “five second memory theory” can easily shown to be false by precisely the observations that Lynn Gibbons made. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-goldfish-have-6-second-memories/145472/12 "2002-12-29T10:36:53Z")
But she’s still just one person. Though you’re probably right - observing our Office Fish, he seemed pretty depressed and bored in his empty bowl. He died this morning. I suspect suicide from depression.