The claim
“Goldfish have a three-second memory”
Myth
Goldfish remember things for months, not seconds.
What's really going on
Goldfish can learn and remember far more than the famous three seconds. Their memory spans at least three months, they can tell shapes, colors and sounds apart, and they can learn to eat from a person's hand.
The receipts
“Goldfish have a memory span of at least three months and can distinguish between different shapes, colors, and sounds.”
“After being kept in a tank for several weeks, sometimes months, it becomes possible to feed a goldfish by hand without it shying away.”
More myths
Myth“Bulls charge because they hate the color red”Bulls are dichromatic, a kind of color blindness, so the red of the cape is irrelevant to them. Disputed“The Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye”Not the way the legend says. It's too narrow and blends into the land, and astronauts disagree about whether they've seen it. Myth“Archaeologists found edible honey in ancient Egyptian tombs”This 'fact' is all over the internet, but no edible honey has been found in Egyptian tombs.