Can Goldfish Drive? Motorized Tank Moves With Fishes Controlling It! [WATCH]

Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. But can you teach a goldfish how to drive?

Researchers created a modified tank on wheels to investigate whether a goldfish could learn to move on dry land, and it did.

The experiment aims to see if a fish's navigation abilities are universal independent of its surroundings. The findings of "From Fish Out of Water to New Insights on Navigation Mechanisms in Animals" will be published in the journal Behavioural Brain Research in February 2022.

(Photo: Pixabay)
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Can You Teach Fish How To Drive?

Animals require navigation skills to find food, find mates, migrate, and so on to survive. However, scientists aren't sure if these navigation skills are unique to the habitat in which an animal evolved to live. Domain transfer methodology, according to Ars Technica, is the capacity to employ navigation abilities in unexpected contexts.

The scientists used a fish-operated vehicle (FOV) with special software and a motion-sensing camera to watch where the fish swims in its rolling aquarium to see if it can navigate on dry land.

A camera above the tank records the movement of the fish as it brushes into the tank's walls or swims ahead, for example. An algorithm adjusts the tank based on the camera's signaling, allowing the fish to "steer" the automobile. The algorithm is powered by a Raspberry Pi, a modest programming machine.

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Here's How You Teach Fish How to Drive

The goldfish had to learn how to drive the FOV before the experiments could begin. Before the scientists acquired the data, six daring goldfish were enrolled in "driving school" to learn how to move the FOV. The fish were rewarded if they successfully steered the automobile to a pink-colored target in a confined environment during 30-minute sessions held every two days.

The fish's movement, direction, and location were converted into instructions for the FOV's wheels, letting it go forward, backward, left, or right. The fish must be facing outside the tank in the direction it is traveling towards to swim in that direction. According to Newsweek, the tank will not move if a fish stays toward the center.

The fish were tasked to “drive” the vehicle towards a visual target in the terrestrial environment, which was observable through the walls of the tank. Indeed, the goldfish were able to explore the terrestrial environment, all while avoiding dead-ends and correcting inaccuracies. pic.twitter.com/RxPuzFbxkE
— Ronen Segev (@ronen_segev) January 3, 2022

Researchers 'Successful' In Teaching How to Drive

When the goldfish were ready to take off, the researchers put their navigational abilities to the test by having them drive to a certain location. The team altered the FOV's starting location and added fake targets in different colors to evaluate if the fish were genuinely navigating to targets and not just memorizing moves to obtain a reward.

According to Ars Technica, all six fish successfully drove toward the visual object and even approached it from varied angles, indicating that they were aware of their surroundings. Throughout the trials, they all avoided dead ends and corrected themselves.

As the challenge was repeated, all of the fish improved their times. This discovery implies that the fish can adapt to their surroundings by learning from them. Not only does this demonstrate that fish can drive, but it also demonstrates that they can adapt to and travel through an ecosystem that is radically different from their own, according to Vice.

It demonstrates that goldfish have the cognitive ability to learn a complicated task in a setting that is much different from the one they developed. In a statement, study author Shachar Givon said the mission was difficult at first, as anybody who has attempted to learn to ride a bike or drive a vehicle knows.