Can you teach a goldfish to drive

Can you teach a goldfish to drive?

Well, the answer is yes, you can teach a goldfish to drive.  We have been telling you for a while that fish are very smart and can be trained – Smithsonian agrees.  According to an article published in Smithsonian Magazine, a group of researchers designed a mobile tank for goldfish to drive on land.  The study was performed to learn about fish navigation skills, no matter the habitat.  The study was published in February 2022 in Science Direct.

Going on to say that the fish were taught to make movements necessary to propel the vehicle to dispense food.  This enabled the fish to navigate over land and obstacles visually thru the Fish Operated Vehicle (FOV) walls.  Their FOV, simply put, is a fish tank on wheels.

ABC News goes on to report that before the experiment could begin the fish needed to be taught how to drive the car. The scientists were surprised how quick the fish learned  to get the food dispensed.  Once the fish learned how to drive the FOV, they were successfully able to drive the vehicle on land and their skills drastically improved with repeated attempts.

The Can you Teach a Goldfish to Drive Study had 2 conclusions. First, fish navigational ability is universal to the species rather than specific to the environment. Second, it showed that goldfish have the ability to learn complex tasks in an unfamiliar environment and make adjustments to survive.

“It shows that goldfish have the cognitive ability to learn a complex task in an environment completely unlike the one they evolved in. As anyone who has tried to learn how to ride a bike or to drive a car knows, it is challenging at first,” study author Shachar Givon, a graduate student at Ben-Gurion University, said in a statement.

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