Comment on China releasing 30 million fish in the Yangtze River

• Bobbycostner@lemmygrad.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I worry about all of those brainwashed fish influencing other fish.

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  • sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Maybe a dumb question, but how much 'culture' is there among lifeforms like fish?

    It seems like a dumb question at first, but consider this... A bacteria grown in a test tube doesn't have any sort of memory so if released into the wild it will act just like a bacteria from the wild. On the other hand, a human being grown in a cage will be totally useless in the world. I suspect there's a "break even" point where before that point a form of life is capable of thriving on instinct alone and after which without being taught how to survive by its parents or by exposure in its environment from birth will not thrive.

    In terms of multicellular life, it seems obvious that something like a mosquito lives entirely based on instinct, since their lifecycle is too short for learning to be a huge priority. How about a fish? It isn't clear to me either way, since I'm not well versed on the subject.

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