Do fish have feelings?

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not saying fish cant respond differently and may seem excited or sad at times, but the complexity of their emotions does not rival ours.

good post knifegill
 
all animals are different.
you cannot compare say,a human's level of "emotion" to that of a fish.
for one thing,the two's brains probably work in very different ways.
most invertebrates probably feel no level of emotion,or only for a very short time.
fish may feel "more" because it is a common understanding that fish can learn to recognize owners and learn what is food and what not.
people are different in that our mental capabilities must be far more advanced than that of a fish.
what we may perceive as "emotion" may not be the same to them,they may not ever experience it.
 
I saw a show that was trying to prove that even plants have emotions by using chromophotography. They said if you talk to your plant it will be happier : )
 
dookie;3990692; said:
I saw a show that was trying to prove that even plants have emotions by using chromophotography. They said if you talk to your plant it will be happier : )

mythbusters showed that plants that were exposed to nice music (classical i think?) grew healthier and faster than those that weren't.LOL
 
I heard something about the plants having feelings too on some show on discovery. But they don't have brains so I would think it would be all some kind of basic reaction.
 
VLDesign;3990597; said:
IMO All living breathing creatures have the same levels of emotions and feelings.

And any scientific psychobabble that says differently is flawed and inaccurate because it's all based on the human response levels and conditions.
There is no "opinion" when dealing with scientific facts. Not all living creatures experience the same levels of emotions and feelings, that's a fact. Their biology just simply doesn't allow for it.

Here's a good read:
http://cotrout.org/do_fish_feel_pain.htm
 
Just to chime in my 2 cents without sounding wonky.

Emotions are a type of energy and energy can be projected and living things are alive because they are possessed of life energy.

A totally simple analogy would be a battery. Charge it and it is full of life, drain it an it becomes dead.

I am thoroughly convinced that fish have cognitive recognition and they do express emotion. One of the main things that convinces me of this is the variance in color that accompanies them with mood swings. Just take a look at them when they go into breeding mode, they surely must be happy!

On a side note I am totally convinced that their emotions are base and dependant upon the fish very shortlived, and I would hate to be a small fish because I am sure they would eat me.
 
Some more food for thought:

Baboons And Pigeons Are Capable Of Higher-Level Cognition, Behavioral Studies Show

ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2009)

Exerpt - "The newsworthiness of our baboon experiment was to show that nonhuman primates are capable of higher-order relational learning. Understanding the relation between relations was previously believed to be a kind of cognition that sets humans apart from all other animals," Wasserman said. "The follow-up discovery - that pigeons too are capable of such higher-order relational learning - affirmed our suspicion that we've really established a finding of broad evolutionary significance."
Despite obvious anatomical differences, this behavioral evidence confirms Charles Darwin's proposal that "the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind."
The notion that there might only be a quantitative - not a qualitative - disparity between human and animal intelligence may make people uneasy, Wasserman said.
"What we're really trying to understand is the extent to which cognition is general throughout the animal kingdom. The evidence that we collect constantly surprises us, suggesting that we're not alone in many of these cognitive abilities," Wasserman said. "Why we would believe that humans alone have such capabilities is a peculiar and unfortunate arrogance. That's one reason why I enjoy studying animals; the smarter we discover them to be, the more humble we should be."

Here's the link to the full artical: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090212141143.htm
 
some more advanced animals, perhaps. fish? i seriously doubt it. as i mentioned before, people these days like to humanize their pets in order to connect with them. while it's "cute" and all, it's rather silly IMO. i think people miscontrue basic animal behavior like hunger, fear, stress to those of humans like love, happines, joy, depression, etc etc
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com