Fish may dine underwater, but they still need to remember their manners at mealtime.
Males of a certain fish species will punish females when they misbehave while eating, a new study finds.
And the chastisement occurs even though the males are not directly affected by the female’s trouble-making, indicating that these fish may exhibit a form of human social behavior known as third-party punishment, the researchers say.
Live Science (thanks, Tammy)
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Haha, un-be-lie-va-ble…
What a great job, you can imagin the scene. whilst having cup of tea, scienceman 1 says to scienceman2. ” hey look at nemo hes telling nemo jnr off for scoffing his food, theres something going on there, lets write it up dude. publish gold man”
only joking . I like these kind of studies, I just found it funny.
I shall be watching the little fishies with much more interest in future, no codding
I wonder how long they did this, and whether all fish will do this, also their wild relatives. Male of lots of species do have this behaviour a lot, but not just for the reason stated in this article .. they seem to react quite fast to a more primal drive on the inside, not really seeing ahead most of the time (which is though what those researchers wish to see in those fish). From lots of species around I’ve seen it’s quite often not the male that are on the lookout, although they do seem to do that but when you look closer it is more something on the outside .. they will also have the same behaviour when there is no reason for it. I wonder whether these male fish did not see to those female as well when they were not after the prawn …
Age and such will probably play a role as well, next to other interactions, in- and outside.
How exactly does fish misbehave?
Oh how facinating, fish (f)ilosophy. I must be sure to remember that next time I have fish for dinner
OR, it could be that male fish do not like chubby females…
“Look, Gloria, do you WANT to put on enough weight to make it look like you’ve got an extra arse?”
“You can talk! Why aren’t I allowed to punish YOU when YOU stuff your face?”
“Muscle weighs more than fat!!!”
Exceedingly bad manners, when she ordered the fish pie!
Reading the article, males ARE affected by the females actions.
What is curious is that the study seems to suggest that females are the only sex responsible for that action. Is this due to greater attraction to the particular food source; or lesser ability to understand consequences; or scientists not sexing fish properly?
sexist pig fish!
@roz says ‘sexist pig fish!’ Hahahaha! Suck arse manfish – brown nosing other species!
I’m sorry, that just sounds so funny. I’d love to know how the researchers discovered this and what they did TO discover this!
LC x