If a normal person sees a tree sprig of green he does not have a feeding response to it. He does not salivate or even put it in his mouth. If that tree, however, produces a peach, he might. If he likes peaches. A green peach will make him think about eating---but he won't, if he's smart. Or experienced in green peaches.
FISH are on a different level. Brain the size of a map pin at largest. There is no room in that little skull for complex wiring. It's all very basic. If experience, smell, or movement does not say 'food'---immediately---it's no more than another sand grain in a world of sand. There is no complex reasoning, no imagination. There is barely a sort of memory triggered by 'eaten this before', but no projection like 'it's inedible now, but will ripen.' It is. Or it isn't.
Some fish have bigger brains than others. When you get down to the obligate live-food sorts, their feeding response is triggered by movement (it's alive) and size (it's prey). Smell, appearance, none of this matters. It's very rare that an obligate carnivore of one sort acquires another food-recognition. I did see it happen once, with a mandarin that took to following a purple tang very closely, probably because the tang was scaring up pods. I fed some Formula One Sinking pellet for the crabs and worms, and Mr. Purple liked it. Somewhere in the moment, Miss Mandy got a pellet instead of a pod. Ever after, she WOULD see the pellets. So even a brain the size of a pinhead has some recording ability. But it's rare that that moment happens. Thiis is WHY getting an obligate-feeder to do something different is not easy, and doesn't always work.
Larger fish, who hunt by means of hunger-triggers not involving 'movement' as the criterion, can switch foods and will sample things for edibility. They may also learn the large shadowy presence outside the glass often causes a shower of food.
Your dog or cat can learn far, far more complicated things, and have emotions, anticipation, and a range of complex behaviors outside of food-seeking (sometimes you wonder, but really, they do.)
But if you think about it, the fish that come to the glass to meet you, have learned a pretty complicated set of associations that have overcome their instinctive caution about very large shadowy moving things. They have associated a manifestation with 'lotta food' and formed an expectation. For a fish, that's pretty much genius.
FISH are on a different level. Brain the size of a map pin at largest. There is no room in that little skull for complex wiring. It's all very basic. If experience, smell, or movement does not say 'food'---immediately---it's no more than another sand grain in a world of sand. There is no complex reasoning, no imagination. There is barely a sort of memory triggered by 'eaten this before', but no projection like 'it's inedible now, but will ripen.' It is. Or it isn't.
Some fish have bigger brains than others. When you get down to the obligate live-food sorts, their feeding response is triggered by movement (it's alive) and size (it's prey). Smell, appearance, none of this matters. It's very rare that an obligate carnivore of one sort acquires another food-recognition. I did see it happen once, with a mandarin that took to following a purple tang very closely, probably because the tang was scaring up pods. I fed some Formula One Sinking pellet for the crabs and worms, and Mr. Purple liked it. Somewhere in the moment, Miss Mandy got a pellet instead of a pod. Ever after, she WOULD see the pellets. So even a brain the size of a pinhead has some recording ability. But it's rare that that moment happens. Thiis is WHY getting an obligate-feeder to do something different is not easy, and doesn't always work.
Larger fish, who hunt by means of hunger-triggers not involving 'movement' as the criterion, can switch foods and will sample things for edibility. They may also learn the large shadowy presence outside the glass often causes a shower of food.
Your dog or cat can learn far, far more complicated things, and have emotions, anticipation, and a range of complex behaviors outside of food-seeking (sometimes you wonder, but really, they do.)
But if you think about it, the fish that come to the glass to meet you, have learned a pretty complicated set of associations that have overcome their instinctive caution about very large shadowy moving things. They have associated a manifestation with 'lotta food' and formed an expectation. For a fish, that's pretty much genius.
