--- title: Myth check: do goldfish have a three-second memory? — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Myth check: do goldfish have a three-second memory?», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: People joke that a goldfish swimming round its bowl sees the same castle every few seconds and thinks «oh, a castle!» --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Myth check: do goldfish have a three-s… # Myth check: do goldfish have a three-second memory? Lesson 152 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/152-goldfish-memory/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/0/) — People joke that a goldfish swimming round its bowl sees the same castle every few seconds and thinks «oh, a castle!» each time, because it forgets everything after three seconds. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/1/) — It is a myth: experiments show goldfish remember things for weeks and even months, and they learn quickly when there is food to be had. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/2/) — Watch a pet goldfish when you walk up to the tank: it swims to the front, because it has learned that you mean dinner. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/3/) — Fish need memory just like other animals, to find food, avoid danger and know their way around, and a fish that forgot everything every three seconds would not survive in a pond for a week. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/4/) — The three-second memory is a myth; experiments show goldfish can remember things for weeks and even months. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/5/) — In one experiment goldfish learned to push a lever for food and remembered the time of day when it worked. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/6/) — Goldfish quickly learn that a person near the tank means food is coming, and they gather at the front. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/7/) — Fish can be trained to come to a sound, a colour or a light that comes before food, and some fish farms use a sound to call fish. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/8/) — Fish can learn simple mazes and remember the way, sometimes using landmarks like stones or plants. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/9/) — Small round bowls are bad for goldfish: their waste quickly makes the water dirty and short of oxygen, so they need a big tank with a filter; a fish that keeps gulping at the surface may be short of oxygen. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/11/) — In a good pond goldfish can grow to over 20 to 30 centimetres and live 10 to 20 years or more. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/12/) — Goldfish must never be let go in the wild, where they can grow huge and harm native fish. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/13/) — Goldfish come from a wild carp in China, bred for their colours over about a thousand years. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/14/) — Goldfish have four kinds of colour cells in their eyes, while we have three, and they can see some ultraviolet light. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/15/) — Most scientists now think fish feel pain and stress; they learn to avoid things that hurt them, so many countries have rules about caring for fish kindly. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/16/) — Fish breathe by drawing water in through the mouth and over the gills, so a goldfish opens and shuts its mouth all the time. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/152-goldfish-memory/17/) — Fish rest and sleep, but most have no eyelids, so their eyes stay open. - ← previous: [Myth check: do ostriches bury their heads in the sand?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/151-ostriches-and-heads-in-the-sand/) - next →: [Myth check: are bats blind?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/153-are-bats-blind/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)