Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Fish Jumping over a Stick Your Explanations


 In a previous video showing fish jumping over a stick, I asked for your ideas explaining fish behavior.

Many of you responded!

 Some came up with fun ideas. 
And some shared very thoughtful ideas. 
I appreciate everyone sharing ideas! 
Sharing is caring.

 One comment in particular caught my attention.
 I am going to pin this comment to the top. 
It is a comment by Nicholas Gordon. 
You can pause and read it here or even better go back to the original video and read it all. 

On August 1st, 2021, I went back to the same place where I observed fish jumping the first time. 
It is the Kayak dock at Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse. 





This time I use a better camera with zoom to get a closer look at the fish. 
Here you can see a school of fish...I assume those are Minnows. 


Previously fish were jumping over sticks that were already in the water. 
Today I brought a couple sticks from the shore for this experiment. 
There is no food or any thing on the stick...let's drop it in the water... 


And zoom in on the fish... 
Fish noticed the stick right away and...start jumping over it. 

Just like that!


There are no predators anywhere around that the fish may try to escape from. 
And there is no food the fish may try to catch. 





Fish seem to lose interest in the stick as the current moves the stick away from the school of the fish.
 Schooling fish prefer to stay close together in a group.
 Let's give them another stick. 
And again, there is no food on the stick to jump for and there is no predators to jump away from. 
We can rule out these two ideas already. 



Yes, fish keep jumping over this stick and even over a small water balloon. 

And it leaves us with ideas first proposed by Nicholas Gordon. 



Fish may jump over the stick to display prowess for dominance and mating rights, for exercise, for fun, or combination of all or some of that ideas.

 Fish, like guppies, have feelings - I showed it in one of my videos.

 I am inclined to think that this fish jumps over a stick just for sheer fun. 
Have fun and happy fish :)


No comments:

Post a Comment