Do fish have feelings?

[JLynn]

I can tell you that my betta fish comes up to the glass to greet me every time I stop by the tank.

And I would imagine that fish feel fear, if for no other reason that that it is a powerful survival mechanism (fear of predators, fear of being lifted out of water, fear of being touched, etc).

 

[Hans-Werner]

As I worked for a public aquarium we made a test whether the fish know their "master" who feeds them. I am 6 ft tall and my colleague a head smaller, I am slim and my colleague not. So it should have been easy for the fish to recognize me. But how disappointing, they where just interested in the colorful plastik cups from which the food fell into the tank. Whoever had the plastik cups was the one they followed.

 

[zaher]

Fish are absolutely smart my fish can recognize me they know the time for feeding and come up and they know when I'm watching them and they come close to the glass and be so curious and they are not afraid of me because they know I don't mean any harm to them especially my purple tang he is really intelligent and I love how curious my flame angel is so they feel and they know us and they recognize us.

 

[Heather w]

I know my babies have feelings. My file fish would come rest in my hand if I dangled my fingers in the water. My blennie and he were BOTH camera hogs. I had a wrasse and a brown powder tang who chummed up from day one. My blennie would do the same movements then swimming with a flourish back to the same spot, spin around and wait for me to giggle. Then he'd do another acrobatic maneuver. I left a pile of new shells in the front of my tank and everyday at different times my 2 hermit crabs would go shopping and try them on, all dreaming of hitting the big time, as you can see in the last photo. I know they have feelings. And personality. Mine are full of it. The 1 I have left:soon to be joined by others will too. I spend a lot of time with my fish. If you're curious ask me about the races they used to have before this recent outbreak took them. A good day to all

 

[Empress]

My fish salute my husband every time he stands in front of the tank. He was in the army.

And as for me, my sailfin tang follows me from one side of the tank to the other just waiting to be petted.

 

[Deinonych]

Of course fish feel. If its living, it feels. Feelings= pain and pleasure.

Even a bacteria feels.

Possibly they feel different emotions than us though.

A simple bacteria probably cant feel much pleasure beyond the sensation of food. But it reacts to pain.

I would state that bacteria react to stimuli (a prerequisite to be considered alive), but it's a stretch to say they feel any pain. As single-celled organisms, they lack the necessary neural pathways to process pleasure and pain.

 

[Johnseye]

They certainly learn where the food comes from. I believe they have feelings as well. Hunger. Pain. Not sure about the number of feelings, but would suspect more.

 

[Paul B]

I think if Osama Bin Laudin put his fingers in my tank my fish would react the same to him as me.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I would never put a dead person's hand in my tank, unless it was a predator tank.

 

[Brew12]

I think if Osama Bin Laudin put his fingers in my tank my fish would react the same to him as me.

Bite him in an effort to get the supermodel to come start feeding them again? :D

 

[Johnseye]

I think if Osama Bin Laudin put his fingers in my tank my fish would react the same to him as me.

I would never put a dead person's hand in my tank, unless it was a predator tank.

Depends on the level of decay, but as long as there was food in the fingers, or in a pred tank the fingers themselves, it wouldn't matter.

 

[Empress]

But then again I wouldn't want to scare my fish or pollute my tank. [emoji12]

 

[john.m.cole3]

Let's not insinuate profanity please. I'm all for some humor, but this is a family group.