Subhi Agrawal
As per scientists, a small tropical fish might possess a complex form of self-awareness that can only be seen in some humans.
Fish About The Size Of A Human Finger
Researchers have recently found that the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, a fish about the size of a human finger, assesses its body size in a mirror before deciding on whether to attack or not on other fish.
The fish can recognize its own reflection and might also possess internal awareness of their own body.
Researchers carried by a team at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan stated the findings, released in the journal Scientific Reports, provide “important clues” on how self-awareness developed.
“The results that fish can use the mirror as a tool can help clarify the similarities between human and non-human animal self-awareness,” said Taiga Kobayashi, a researcher at Osaka Metropolitan University, reported by Independent.
Other Species That Cleared The Test
Other species including Chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants, pigeons, and magpies have also cleared the mirror self-recognition test, a test used for identifying self-awareness.
The test involves putting marks with paints or stickers on the body of the animals where they usually cannot see, like in the chest or face. Then the animal is placed in front of the mirror to check whether they can examine the marks or not. However, the authors stated that the classic MSR test does not indicate “private” self-awareness, which is more advanced and involves reflecting on internal elements like goals and intentions.
Helps In Cleaning Larger Fish
According to previous research, cleaner wrasse is named as they provide a “cleaning service” to larger fish by eliminating parasites, dead skin, and other debris from their bodies.
Cleaner wrasse can pass the MSR test but scientists wanted to know whether they can make a mental picture of their body while looking at the mirror and make decisions accordingly.
To test this researchers selected 15 cleaner fish and put them inside an aquarium seven of which had mirrors while the rest were used as controls. Then the fish were shown pictures of various groups of fish in slightly larger or slightly smaller.
The results were found that the cleaner wrasse previously exposed to mirrors showed less aggression towards larger and same-sized fish in the pictures, however, were aggressive towards the smaller fish.Moreover, some of them were observed going continuously parallel to the mirror when presented with pictures of larger fish.
According to Independent, the authors wrote: “These findings suggest that these fish may have assessed their body size to decide whether to exhibit aggressive behaviour toward the intimidating larger photograph.”
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