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First Scientific Confirmation of Consciousness in a Tiny Fish

2026-04-04 Science & Technology
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Anton Petrov
Anton Petrov
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Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath (Unreleased videos, extra footage, DMs, no ads) Alternatively, PayPal donations can be sent here: http://paypal.me/whatdamath Get a Wonderful Person Tee: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath More cool designs are on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QFIrFX Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about an interesting discovery of awareness and consciousness in a tiny fish Links: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-25837-0?error=server_error Other videos: https://youtu.be/JHJXqWGPsFE https://youtu.be/aI6hGYFiIk4 https://youtu.be/-Tcdpph1ahg 0:00 Fish intelligence? The story of cleaner wrasse 2:05 What is self-awareness? Mirror test 4:25 The fish aced the test! 5:50 Contingency testing - sign of complex intelligence 7:20 Here is probably why they are so smart - cheating test 9:20 Other smart fish 11:25 Here is why this is important 13:20 Conclusions #fish #intelligence #biology Enjoy and please subscribe Bitcoin/Ethereum to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! bc1qnkl3nk0zt7w0xzrgur9pnkcduj7a3xxllcn7d4 or ETH: 0x60f088B10b03115405d313f964BeA93eF0Bd3DbF The hardware used to record these videos: New Camera: https://amzn.to/4pCVINS CPU: https://amzn.to/4qXIaxC Video Card: https://amzn.to/2M1W26C Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2JYGiQQ RAM: https://amzn.to/2Mwy2t4 PSU: https://amzn.to/2LZcrIH Case: https://amzn.to/2MwJZz4 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2t5jTv0 Mixer: https://amzn.to/2JOL0oF Recording and Editing: https://amzn.to/2LX6uvU Some of the above are affiliate links, meaning I would get a (very small) percentage of the price paid. Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Special thanks also goes to all the wonderful supporters of the channel through YouTube Memberships Credit: Mark Garlick www.markgarlick.com Diego Delso CC BY sA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse#/media/File:Lábrido_limpiador_común_(Labroides_dimidiatus),_mar_Rojo,_Egipto,_2023-04-17,_DD_90.jpg Izuzuki CC BY SA 2.5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse#/media/File:NiseKGP.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse#/media/File:Labroides_dimidiatus_courtship_(cropped).jpg Alexander Vasenin CC BY sa 3.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse#/media/File:Cleaner_wrasse_with_a_client.JPG Silke Baron CC BY 2.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluestreak_cleaner_wrasse#/media/File:Giant_Moray_Eel_getting_cleaned.jpg roseoftimothywoods - https://www.flickr.com/photos/madfox/29367611/ CC BY 2.0 Licenses used: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and relevant Creative Commons licenses

Top Comments (10)

@GrahenKraken 2026-04-05

So we're talking about... artifishal intelligence?

6.5k 241 replies
@TheImmortuary 2026-04-04

Of course, fish are smart; they spend all their time in schools. :)

4.7k 173 replies
@josephd.5524 2026-04-04

Being self-aware AND making the decision to crawl into the mouths of moray eels to clear them is a hell of a thing. Brave little buggers.

2.0k 55 replies
@andrewilijic9563 2026-04-06

Having to help and take care of other fish probably creates a lot of evolutionary pressure to understand things outside oneself.

1.9k 19 replies
@DeWessel97 2026-04-06

"they can anticipate the consequences of their own actions" damn this fish smarter than me

1.3k 12 replies
@collincutler4992 2026-04-05

A MIRROR....so THAT explains the weird bald guy living in my bathroom wall...

1.0k 25 replies
@rebelappliance771 2026-04-06

The fact that the wrasse would drop objects in front of the mirror to see how it worked was the most insane part of this study to me. The subjects of an experiment doing their own tests.

808 4 replies
@c.v.2294 2026-04-06

This is giving "I didn't know fish could feel pain" and it's baffling that some people can't fathom that creatures outside of themselves are real living beings just like us.

498 39 replies
@bearson8843 2026-04-06

Given that ants have passed the mirror test before, I find it unlikely that most life lacks self awareness to some degree

343 8 replies
@lyh_s2 2026-04-07

really sad thinking about all of those animals that are being mistreated and abused... so common to see people treating fish as toy, keeping them in miniscule and dirty tanks

139 5 replies

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