³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Fish can count. Yes you've read that correctly.

A new study has found that cichlids and stingrays can do simple sums, like adding up and subtracting.

The fish in the study were able to quickly work out how many objects were present in a room, as long as it was under five.

The scientists then tested whether the fish would be able to do basic adding up and subtracting if these objects were taken away.

To their amazement, the cichlids and stingrays were able to do the sums.

However, the scientists from the University of Bonn, in Germany, have no idea what the fish use their mathematical genius for.

The scientists used a method that they'd successfully tried before on bees.

They showed them a number of shapes, for example four squares.

If they were blue, that meant "add one", if they were yellow, that meant "subtract one".

After being shown the original squares, the fish were shown two pictures - one with five squares and the other with three.

If they swam to the correct picture, they were rewarded with food. If they gave the wrong answer they went away empty handed.

The scientists found that, more often than not, the fish went to the correct answer.