Fish Fights

Not dog fighting, not cock fighting, those are illegal. Fish fights though seem to have allowed scientists to discover that yes fish do have personalities. So I wonder when the teacher will impose no fighting rules in the undesea school yard.

Fish certainly have more personality than what meets the human eye, as according to biologists in Britain, not only do different trout have different characters, but these change as the fish experience life's highs and lows.

Winning or losing a fight, or even watching fellow fish negotiate the perils and pitfalls of encountering strange new objects, influenced the future behaviour of rainbow trout studied in the lab.

Researchers led by Lynne Sneddon, of the University of Liverpool, identified different 'personalities' in their fish by observing the boldness or shyness of individuals. Like people, some fish are very confident in the face of novelty or confrontation, whereas others are reticent and fearful.

Predictably, shy fish that won a fight also gained more confidence. But surprisingly, shy fish that lost their bout also grew bolder when investigating strange new food. Sneddon says that this could be due to what she calls a 'desperado effect'. Shy fish that know they're pathetic in a fight must race for food if they want to get any, she suggests, admitting: "This is totally presuming that fish think about winning or losing."


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