Goldfish, the classical music aficionados: The famously forgetful fish can distinguish between Bach and Stravinsky, study shows

Fish able to distinguish composers around three quarters of the time

They even developed personal tastes, claims study by Japanese team



Goldfish may be forgetful, but when it comes to classical music, it seems they know what they like.

They can distinguish between a piece by 18th century German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and one by 20th century Russian Igor Stravinsky, a study found.

Japanese researchers played goldfish Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. They trained four of them to bite a red bead on hearing one piece, but not the other.

Holy mackerel! Goldfish have evolved to develop similar hearing mechanisms as seemingly far more complex animals, said researchers who painstakingly trained them to tell the difference between Bach and Stravinsky

Professor Sigeru Watanabe, from the department of psychology at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan, said goldfish have evolved to develop similar hearing mechanisms as seemingly far more complex animals.

He said: ‘Humans... can easily recognise and enjoy a variety of types of music.

‘Several studies have investigated whether these properties of music exist in non-human animals.

‘Goldfish are known as a hearing specialist species, since they have evolved a structure to enhance auditory signals detected by the inner ear.

‘This suggests that goldfish have evolved specific features for hearing and can recognise complex auditory stimuli similar to those recognised by modern vertebrates.’

The researchers carried out several experiments, and eventually trained four goldfish to either bite the bead to one piece of music and to do nothing when the other was playing.

The fish were able to distinguish between the music around three quarters of the time.

But they were not fast learners – it took more than 100 training sessions before they were able to distinguish the pieces.

The scientists also tested to see whether the fish would recognise other pieces by the same composers that they had never heard before.

However found they did not appear to recognise them and instead the fish swam around randomly.

Academic fishing expedition: Like humans, the fish did seem to show some individual tastes – one fish avoided music by Bach, left, and preferred Stravinsky, right, while another fish avoided Stravinsky, the study found



In another experiment involving six different goldfish, the scientists found the animals did not appear to show any strong preference for a particular type of music.

However, like humans, the fish did seem to show some individual tastes – one fish avoided Bach’s music and preferred Stravinsky while another of the fish avoided Stravinsky.

Professor Watanabe added: ‘For those subjects, the musical stimuli might have a certain kind of reinforcing properties, although it was not consistent among individuals.

‘On the other hand, three of the six subjects did not show any preferences for areas of the tank in which music was presented.’

The findings go some way to disproving myths that suggest goldfish are relatively simple creatures with low levels of intelligence.

According to popular myth they have a memory span of only 15 seconds.