fish don’t play, you say??? I beg to differ

[Rusty_Shackleford53 169]

connection between me, and food, yet , some have no fear… ( maybe those are really the dumber fish rather than the smarter ones )??? but to me it shows a higher level of intelligence rather than just a fight or flight response

I've been doing some reading on this and obviously we know some cichlids are smart and can recognize the person that feeds them. Some can recognize different human faces.
I was surprised to learn that elephantnose fish (Mormyridae) possess one of the highest brain to body mass ratios of all animals, even surpassing humans.

 

[gwand53 169]

Sociobiology has taught us that many human behaviors have their origins in “lower” animals. Chimpanzees wage war, elephants mourn, mice laugh when tickled and fish probably play. Behaviors evolve up the family tree. There are few if any human behaviors that don’t have antecedents in the animal kingdom.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford53 169]

Sociobiology has taught us that many human behaviors have their origins in “lower” animals. Chimpanzees wage war, elephants mourn, mice laugh when tickled and fish probably play. Behaviors evolve up the family tree. There are few if any human behaviors that don’t have antecedents in the animal kingdom.

Interesting examples, and all mammals. Dolphins play, otters play, again mammals and not "lower' animals.

 

[GaryE14 12]

But, to stir the pot, we are mammals and find understanding mammals easier. What reason could there be for a fish that has enough food and relative safety not to play around?
There are no lower animals. And no higher ones. It's all just different branches on a tangle of growth. The question is where the thing (things?) we call intelligence started. And with intelligence probably comes play, as it's part of how we figure out our world and how to do things in it.
It probably evolved a few times on different branches, but since we and our fish share common ancestry...

Elephant noses have electrical sensing we don't, and those brains must be really something.

I still think a lot of why we don't understand these questions has to do with our own species' stupidity. We've more or less gotten the idea that the sun doesn't revolve around our planet, but the idea that other species may have more going on upstairs than we can admit is dying hard. My Mom said I was special, but biology doesn't. We're the best at having human intelligence out there, but play's not that complex an idea.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford53 169]

So an amoeba is not a lower animal?
How about euglena? Jellyfish? Where is the line drawn? Personally I think a starting point is a vertebrate with a more advanced nervous system.
If you put a ping pong ball in with a tarantula they will sometimes push it around. But it's pretty wildly accepted that their brains aren't complex enough for play or enrichment.
We've learned a lot about fish in the last few decades. We've learned they need regular sleep patterns just like humans. We don't know if theu get grumpy or crabby if they don't get enough sleep just like humans.
If there is an experiment that proves fish play, cool I'm in, fish play.

 

[gwand53 169]

A complex behavior like play is not binary: you know how to play or you don’t know how to play. There are evolutionary steps that led from no play condition to the complex play that mammals experience. I have no proof, but I posit that fish engage in an ancestral form of play. A precursor to complex mammalian play.

 

[gwand53 169]

Here is a different take on play.

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-strand-ai-island-playing-games.html

 

[Rusty_Shackleford53 169]

Here is a different take on play.

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-10-strand-ai-island-playing-games.html

Ah-a! I knew it. This proves if you hire AI it's just going to sit there and play solitaire and minesweeper instead of working. Hire humans.
Seriously this makes me think that what we interpret as play is actually instinctual behavior simulating fleeing from predators or chasing down food etc.