Do Fish Feel Pain How We Know A Fish Is In Pain

Do fish feel pain? Have you ever sat and wondered if they feel at all and if they can feel pain. I’m sure like me you have. Pain is a subjective thing and we as humans can let people and inanimate objects know we are in pain. We scream and shout cuss fish can’t communicate their pain if they indeed have any.

Fish don’t talk or scream in fact they don’t make much noise at all. So how would we know if they are in some discomfort do fish roll around in agony?

Do Fish Feel Pain

Scientific evidence indicates fish indeed feel pain they have a complex nervous system with neurons that signal the brain allowing the fish to be self-aware.

Fish Know When They Are Hurt

Yes, fish indeed know when they have hurt themselves. Fish won’t scream for help when an affliction happens but they will swim faster to escape. Their breathing will become erratic they may come to the surface for more oxygen. These are some tell-tale signs of discomfort and stress.

How We Know Fish Suffer

The simple answer is science. All in the name of science we have been studying this for over 100 years and fish feel pain. Take Lynne Sneddon at the Roslin Institute Lynne and her colleagues took some fish and poked them in the head. While poking them they subjected them to heat and acid which resulted in neuron response within 22 different neurons within the fish.

Can You Observe A Fish In Pain

Speaking as a hobbyist who loves fish and wants to keep them happy and healthy. I don’t think we need to inject them or play loud music or subject them to anguish and pain. There are plenty of things that can course aches and pains or soreness.

All we need to do is observe the fish. If they seem agitated they may attack other fish fin nipping or a bit of bad behavior leading to fighting. This can be a sign of a fish that’s suffering or in pain of some sort.

Fish that have been nipped may have fins or tails that look ripped and torn. Check for sore spots across their bodies and inflamed gills that look red. Are the fish rubbing against rocks and stones or ornaments? Another big sign of pain is itching so you may see them rubbing against shrubs plants wood etc.

Stay vigilant and always look out for signs of diseases and symptoms such as loss of color lumps and bumps across the fish’s body. Bloating on one side or the eyes popping out. Scales falling out or the fish producing too much slime. These are all signs of illness disease and parasites that will be causing pain and suffering to your fish.

We also need to be so careful of our fish water conditions any ammonia can poison or at least burn fish causing agony. If you see fish near the top of the tank at the surface of the water pay attention as there are numerous problems that may be accruing.

Here Are Some Related Topics

These articles will help in stopping any undue pain and suffering please feel free to have a look.

Can Fish Drown? Do You Have Enough Oxygenated Water

neon tetra water conditions and tank parameters

Will A Fish’s Fins Grow Back?

Can Fish Recover From Ammonia Poisoning Full Guide

Keeping Aquarium Water clear and Clean!

Fish Tank Water Change – The Steps needed

white slime in fish tank filter What Can I Do?

Fish Have Endorphins

Now fish have been extensively studied and tested as stated in this very article. They have been rigorously looked at for the last century and it turns out our little buddies fish have pretty sophisticated nervous systems. These nervous systems have neurotransmitters and endorphins whose job is to relieve pain.

That’s correct they have endorphins fish also have 20 receptors called nociceptors that are for painkilling. These receptors are around the mouth and head of the fish.

Why on earth would fish need to produce any form of endorphins unless they could feel pain for instance? A good example of the angst felt by fish is the fisherman hook. When they are caught it’s not the lack of oxygen as this takes many minutes for the gills to dry out.

It’s in fact the pain they feel that has them reeling and jolting about. Then comes the fear of the unknown and lastly the suffocation from lack of oxygen.

The fact that fish have learned to avoid hooks and other fishing measures such as nets is a testament to self-awareness and learning from previous pain. This is also the view from experiments with fish that involved electric shock treatment and jabbing with pins. The fish learned to stay away from certain areas at certain times. They also taught each other including new fish to stay away from certain objects that had been poisoned.

More on these experiments can be found here in biologist Victoria Braithwaite’s book Do fish feel pain?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691351/

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7266864-do-fish-feel-pain

Yes Fish Feel Pain Conclusion

As we wrap up this particular post and muse on the topic do fish feel pain? Yes, we can confirm fish feel pain and manifest this pain and anguish in many ways. No fish don’t talk to us about their pain they may not cry out in agony. Nonetheless, they feel the pain and suffering they jump or jolt the same as other animals. They try to rub and itch to soothe the pain or ache.

Heck fish may even lash out when in pain and chase each other. They hide and breathe faster coming to the surface in need of more oxygen. Fish show pain in their own unique way as has been researched for many years.

I hope you enjoyed the read and please feel free to look around the site for more great articles ill leave you with some more topically related martial