Cognitive Abilities of Fish

This chapter describes exemplary basic cognitive abilities of fish. It contains information about territorial and social behavior. The prey-catching behavior of archerfish, which “shoot” insects sitting or flying on leaves with the help of water jets, is described in detail. It is shown that archerfish not only determine the size and distance of an insect, but also the point of impact of the insect on the water surface within a few milliseconds, thereby increasing their probability of success in prey capture. The behavior of cleaner fish, i.e., fish that free other fish from parasites and dead skin flakes, is also discussed in detail. Further sections deal with social learning, mate choice, social life, and stress processing. Finally, it is shown that different fish can even have different personalities.