Jonathan Balcombe ’s new bookWhat a Fish Knowsbubbles with astounding fish fact . We talked with him about Pisces the Fishes ' feelings , their families , and their fight squads .
1. THEY’VE GOT PERSONALITIES.
Balcombe prefer the plural form “ fishes ” to “ fish , ” because , as he says , they ’re “ not things . They ’re someone , think brute with brain and life sentence of their own . ” brook in front of a eating house marine museum for just a few minutes and you ’ll notice something startling : Just like individual citizenry , some fishes are more aggressive , while others are sneaky ; some are shy , and others singular . Balcombe also observe that the category of “ Pisces the Fishes ” curb a very , very panoptic kitchen range of animal , from whale shark to eels , seahorses , and goldfish . “ There are 32,000 species , ” he says , “ and within each of those metal money there are many , many individuals . ”
2. THEY HAVE COMPLEX SOCIAL LIVES.
The human relationship between clean Pisces and their clients is mind - blowingly advanced . Little clean fish set up railcar - wash - type Stations of the Cross and advertise their serving by flashing brightly one-sided plate . Larger fish waiting line up , then swim up one at a time to have algae , parasites , and other debris removed from their mouths , scales , and lamella covers . Now , Pisces are covered in a sensitive stratum of protective mucous secretion ; that ’s what makes them slimy . And that mucous secretion is nutrient - copious and , “ as it turns out , ” Balcombe says , “ pretty tasty . ”
But there are moment for a sportsmanlike fish who nips a node ’s ooze coat : The client will startle or jar . That shock tell the clean Pisces to bump it off , but it also tells the other Pisces the Fishes waiting around and watching that this cleaner is sub - par . Those Pisces may very well take their business somewhere else . If those Pisces are n’t there , the cleaner may well keep nipping , but the customer will likely find a newfangled cleansing agent next time .
3. THEY CAN GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO CARE FOR THEIR YOUNG.
Damselfish . Image quotation : Philippe Bourjonvia Wikimedia Commons // CC BY - SA 4.0
Fish parents can be dedicated as any social lion , chimpanzee , or human . You know that sensitive , off - point of accumulation mucous secretion bed ? Some fish countenance their babies exhaust it . Some fish actually entrust the weewee to lie their egg in secure , hidden places . Some have on their eggs like hats to keep them skinny . Still others will defend their eggs to the death , even against much big animate being . In the record , Balcombe name fish expert Tierney Thys ’s encounter with a fierce 5 - in demoiselle guarding a clutch of nut . When Thys moved in to get a closer look , the fish attacked , fleet in , seize a ringlet of Thys ’s hair in its teeth , and pulling “ … so hard , that I involuntarily yelped in pain , a cry that was immediately followed by sputter as I flooded my masque laughing . ”
4. THEY JOIN FORCES.
Grouper . ikon Credit : Elias Levyvia Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0
Like the Avengers , fish ofdifferent speciesteam up to compound their mogul . For deterrent example : Coral grouper will invite moray eel eel to join them on a Richard Morris Hunt . grouper are great hunter in opened water supply and eels are unstoppable in cracks and crevice , which means that few quarry can escape a moray eel - grouper squad . And it get better : They ’ve learned to pass across the coinage barrier . research worker establish that when a grouper find obscure prey it ca n’t reach , it performs a “ headstand , ” pointing to its quarry with its entire dead body so the eel knows where to go . If the eel is too far forth to notice , the grouper may swim over , throw off its body to get the eel to take after it , return to the cranny , and point again . Outside of groupers , only two other eccentric of animals are known to point : ravens and high priest .
5. THEY MAKE NOISES.
For a foresightful , longsighted time , scientists assumed that fish ’ lack of international ears meant that they were deaf . We now know that they can hear just fine . Some species can hear even better than we can . And not only can they listen randomness , but they make them , too . Fish can growl , barque , click , hum , whistle , and croak . Some Pisces areso noisythat they can be heard on land .
6. THEY HAVE GREAT MEMORIES.
Goby . figure of speech Credit : Sdbeazleyvia Wikimedia Commons // CC BY 2.0
Studies have shown that item-by-item Pisces the Fishes can remember events , tasks , trial run , and other Pisces for months and even years . And the goldfish ’s notorious three - minute store is a concluded myth — many pet owners and researchers have prepare their Pisces the Fishes to do tricks , a effort that trust on a solid remembering of input and reward .
And then there are the frillfin gobies , niggling intertidal fish whose tiny brains can perform astonishingly complex calculation . At low tide , gobies often feel themselves trapped in tide pool with hungry predators . With no ability to see the terrain around them , the goby are able to leap into the air travel and land , with 97 percent truth , in a neighboring pool . How do they do it ? Experiments in an artificial tidal zona found that , in high tide , as the waves wash the gobies ashore , they look down at the beach , con the topography . When the lunar time period recedes , the gobies ’ head translate that aery single-valued function into an centre - level pattern , telling them not only where they are , but where to jump out to find safety gadget .
7. THEY CAN FEEL PLEASURE AND PAIN.
Cleaner Pisces the Fishes bring their client more than just hygienics . experimentation have shown that strain out fish are more likely to seek out cleaners , and that the experience of being stroked or touched lowers their hydrocortisone levels . In other words , it feel undecomposed .
Many studies have shown that , far from being the reasonless , scaly automaton we envisage them to be , Pisces can feel pain as acutely as other animals — a fact Balcombe says we should keep in mind the next time we natter the grocery store store . “ It ’s pretty awful , the agency we care for Pisces the Fishes , ” he say . “ We ’re taking huge , immense numbers of Pisces the Fishes from the sea , and sadly , most of them become flat of suffocation on the boat deck , are squelch in the net , or suffer decompression injuries . As consumer , we ’re all party to that . When we purchase something at the supermarket , we ’re essentially saying to the supplier , ‘ Do it again . ’ ”
