Fish Have Emotion
Strangely fish are very much like humans. We may not easily consider them as emotional beings as they are more out of sight in our lives, yet research shows that fish do feel emotion.
Not having hair, fur or any appeal of touch-ability, fish often get ignored on the ‘pet spectrum’ and placed in constrictive tanks to be stared at from time to time when we do remember we have a fish tank.
Long before pet supply stores were ‘big box’, I remember the excitement of a weekend visit to our quaint neighborhood pet store. For my young self, a trip to the pet store was more full of anticipation than hearing the distant recognizable melody of the ice cream truck coming down the street.
The colors, shapes and varied personalities of the fish were simply fascinating. I loved how some seemed to glow while others were like treasures to find amidst the plastic foliage and nook filled rocks.
The first tank and family of fish I owned, I bought with my own ‘chore money’. 5 brilliant gold fish. Some had bulging eyes and flowing fins like gossamer wings while others stood tall and firm, darting about purposefully. I bought a little gold fish with white speckles who I worried might end up as food for another. The tank sat on my dresser in my bedroom next to my desk so I could interact and talk to them. Each one had their own distinct personality. I remember petting them as they would surface allowing my fingertip to caress their little backs, then they would swim off with new energy like kids running about in the park.
When I learned recently of studies of fish in tanks and how fish seem to experience emotion, I remembered my first first tank. I had felt a sincere bond to my fish and sensed they each had consciousness. The researchers drew a line on the tank, half way, separating top half from bottom half so more easily measure an affect they had witnessed in small tank bound fish. Fish new to the tank would swim above the line while fish that had been captured in this limited tank environment for more than 3 days tended to spend the majority of their time below the line. The longer the stayed in the tank, the more time they would spend below the line.
In the experiment, researchers gave the fish doses of prozac. Yes, prozac. Not an experiment I would do yet the affects are interesting to note. The once more ‘depressed fish’ would eagerly swim above the line darting about with new vigor.
Now I do not write this in hope that you give your tank fish anti-depressants. In our lives, if our environment is limited, our vision and space for our lives contained, where do we feel depression?
If our interactions with the outside world, with hopes for our freedoms to expand, are limited, what is it costing us?
What lessons can you learn from fish in a tank?
What do you want for your life beyond your current ‘tank of circumstances’?
Live free, find wonder, pursue your passion,
Hugs, Tina Marie