A new study has shown in several experiments that fish can navigate on land – giving a new meaning to the expression “go fish.”
Scientists at Ben-Gurion University put a fish tank on wheels to test whether goldfish (Carassius auratus) can navigate on land just like in water. The results are quite surprising, to say the least. Apparently, the fish had no problems driving the vehicle to a designated reward wall in a room, Science reports.
The goldfish go-cart, officially called “fish-operated vehicle” or FOV, uses the lidar laser sensing technology, an onboard camera, and motion detection software to track the fish’s location in the tank. To test their tank driving skills, the researchers put six goldfish—one at a time—in the vehicle, which rolled in a certain direction in a room depending on which wall of the tank the fish swam towards. Whenever a fish navigated its vessel toward a pink board on one of the room’s walls, it was given a food reward.
To the scientists’ amazement, after just a few days of training each fish was able to reach the target, regardless of what position they started in. That was the case even when the board’s position was changed, or the fish were interrupted by a wall, or boards of different colors were used, the researchers reported in Behavioural Brain Research.
The fish “were able to operate the vehicle, explore the new environment, and reach the target, regardless of the starting point, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting location inaccuracies,” Shachar Givon and Matan Samina, who published the research along with Ohad Ben Shahar and Ronen Segev, told the Israel Times.
The experiment shows goldfish navigation skills aren’t limited to their home environment (like a coral reef), and the fish are capable of mastering new skills in an unfamiliar setting. In the future, the team would like to explore how fish learn to navigate longer routes in less-contrived situations. “We want the fish to go outside and navigate a natural human environment,” Givon told Live Science. This could allow the researchers a glimpse into how the fish might make decisions in more dynamic unfamiliar environments.
Could future studies could turn the tables and put terrestrial animals such as rats in makeshift submarines to see whether they do as well in water as fish do on land? Well, according to the researchers, that’s indeed very likely.