After reading this perhaps you will look at your goldfish with new eyes, particularly when you realize he or she really looks at you with new eyes. The human eye can only see three colors and variations of these, a goldfish can see four! The fourth color is an ultraviolet color and this helps him find food as well as detect motion in the water. It’s a pity about his eye placement though, because his eyes are placed either side of his head he suffers a massive blind spot in the middle.
The good news is your goldfish knows who you are and recognizes you. So, if at times you feel like a hand that simply feeds him, take heart, he actually knows who cares for him.
One sad myth is that goldfish have a 3-second memory and this has led many people into believing they need smaller bowls or tanks simply because by the time they swim around it, they have forgotten what they last saw so each moment is brand new. In fact, goldfish have outstanding memories as proved by an experiment in Israel. The scientists trained the goldfish to respond to a dinner bell and found that the fish had remembered the bell five months later! Now that is some memory, even better than some people you know, you might say.
Goldfish will eat anything so long as it fits into their mouths, so be mindful of that when placing smaller fish near to them. Their taste-buds are situated on their lips and their teeth are further down their throat, which enables them to gulp what looks like large objects and not choke to death from lack of breath. This could also be a warning as to what to feed your goldfish, because a goldfish will happily eat anything.
If you think a goldfish is a second-rate pet, think again, you can teach your goldfish to do tricks. All sorts of tricks including playing soccer. All you have to do is give him treats!