Fish Can Recognize Their Reflection, Challenging Scientific Research About Animal Self-Awareness

If you think humans are the only people who know when it’s a mirror and when it’s a twin, think again! It turns out that some of our aquatic friends are smart enough to recognize their reflections. That’s right; a recent study has shown that ‘cleaner fish,’ also known as Labroides dimidiatu, might be the latest addition to the list of animals that can recognize their reflections. As shocking as it sounds, it is true. Scientists are suggesting that such self-awareness may be more widespread among animals than they previously thought. Move over, dogs and cats – the Cleaner Fish is here to join the exclusive club of self-aware animals.

The Proof

Researchers conducted a two-step mirror self-recognition study on ten cleaner fish. This test involved marking each one on its throat to resemble an ectoparasite. All ten fish exhibited throat-scraping behaviors, trying to remove the ‘parasite.’ They continued testing the cleaner fish with still images of themselves and unfamiliar fish. Now, cleaner fish are known to be quite aggressive towards unfamiliar fish, so the researchers wanted to see if this aggression extended to images of themselves. The fish who hadn’t participated in the previous mirror mark test acted aggressively towards any still image of a fish, even if it was their image on display. It seems like these cleaner fish could not only recognize their reflections but also know when they were looking at a fish they did not know.

The Scientific Progress

Until now, only a few large-brained species had passed this mirror test. The list of these large-brained animals included chimpanzees and other great apes, dolphins, and elephants. Masanori Kohda, an animal sociologist at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan, who led the study, believes that we must rethink the belief that higher intelligence can only be found in larger-brained animals. The evidence for this claim is that scientists have struggled to understand why some species, such as monkeys and ravens, have not passed the test, even with their high cognitive abilities.

Bottom Line

It’s incredible to think that these little fish have a self-face recognition ability and, hopefully, self-awareness, much like humans. Who knows, maybe next, they’ll be taking selfies and posting them on social media. We are excited to see if they make the duck face as humans did. Next time you’re cleaning your fish tank, you must give your fish a mirror and see if they recognize their reflection too. Until then, we’ll have to settle for knowing that even our underwater friends can be a little impressive sometimes.