Eli5: do fish feel pain?

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If so: how do they handle those parasites that consume their tongues without dying from the pain? They have no appendages, fingers, or other means to remove the parasite so how to they not just succumb from the excruciating pain? (Also, how does that bug parasite thing then survive in their mouth?)

Lots of confusion here!

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The consensus is yes, but there’s still some debate as o whether or not the experience of pain in fish is the same experience that we have.” Pain is not just a negative stimulus, but it’s also an emotional response to that stimulus. Fish can certainly feel and react to negative stimuli – we can observe that behavior and they react negatively to things that damage their bodies, avoid things that could damage their bodies, and engage in behaviors that would ease physical discomfort, and they certainly have the requesite parts of their nervous systems that would enable them to feel physically unpleasant sensations. On the other hand, their brains are much simpler than those of higher vertebrates like mammals, so it’s unclear if they can experience the emotional aspect of “suffering” in a way that would be familiar to us – some scientists say yes, some say no, and some aren’t sure.

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