Want to make your fish more clever? Build them a playground in their tank to give them an intellectual workout

Want to make your fish more clever? Build them a playground in their tank to give them an intellectual workout U.S. study suggests fish in more stimulating environments are smarter The fish kept in more exciting tanks developed better learning and memory Discovery could provide an insight into how to successfully repopulate our oceans and rivers Keeping your goldfish in a tank which contains plants and sculptures could make them cleverer, according to new American research. Fish kept in tanks with hiding places and floating artificial plants showed signs of improved brain function and could better navigate mazes than the those in a less exciting environment Professor Victoria Braithwaite explained that currently a lot of fish that are bred in captivity do not survive once they are released into the wild. Victoria Braithwaite, professor of fisheries and biology, Penn State, said that adding objects to make hatchery tanks more stimulating for the fish can make fish smarter and better adapted to survive in the wild In contrast, Braithwaite said the hatchery world is homogenous: ‘The water flow is the same, you don't have to find your food and you don't have to avoid predators.’ Researchers discovered when fish were raised in the enriched tank, parts of their brains changed and they could escape from a maze quicker than fish raised in standard tanks When the researchers placed the salmon in a maze, the fish raised in the enriched tanks made fewer mistakes when trying to escape the maze. The brains of the fish from the enriched tank were also different from the fish raised in the standard hatchery tanks, according to the researchers.