One, two, three, four five....

You may remember that we recently restocked our little garden pond with six goldfish from the local DIY store. Perhaps you were even wondering how they were faring. Well, in short, they didn't seem to fare at all well, although I hardly dared to tell you. After releasing them into our pond, I checked on them the following day and was heartened to see them venturing out from their hiding place under the water lilies, and exploring the pond . But by that evening they had retreated, and I could no longer see them. The next day I kept watch , but didn't catch a single glimpse of our little golden fish. Had they been taken that very same night by a heron? Surely not. For sure, the héron cendré , as it is known in France , is sometimes seen in our valley, but it was highly unlikely to have discovered our fish on their first night, let alone taken every single one without trace. But still: days , and then weeks passed, without a single sighting of our goldfish. We sprinkled food on the surface of the water to attract them...still nothing. So we ended up fearing the worst.

And then, almost by accident, two weeks ago I spotted a single goldfish hiding by the water irises. I hovered over the pond to get a further glimpse, but it rapidly darted away out of sight. Ever since then I have kept watch , but whenever I spotted one or perhaps two , they rapidly vanished under the water lilies, so I was unable to verify whether they were all there. And so I adopted a plan. Sitting on a stone bench at the edge of the pond, I prepared to wait for as long as it took. Wasps, dragon flies like miniature helicopters, and electric blue damsel flies hovered over the water, while pond skaters skimmed the surface and water boatmen scurried and dived beneath. Eventually, lo and behold six fish emerged and swam to the other end of the pond . All was well. We hadn't lost our fish after all. As I stood up to take a further look , they darted out of sight, and failed to reappear.

But this is all very odd. Why are our goldfish so aware of my presence, and why are they so afraid? After all , we have kept goldfish for many , many years, watching the older ones develop in size, and new tiny ones spawn. They have always swum happily in front of us, and never hidden out of sight. So what is going on? Herein lies a theory.

"You have the memory of a goldfish."

It is commonly said that the memory span of a goldfish is no more than three seconds long. But is this true? Recently scientists have debunked this myth, as an article in this week's Guardian newspaper reported. But do we need scientists to prove this to us? Isn't it obvious? Surely our goldfish well remember that lurking figure of the man with the net in the DIY store, who lifted them from the safety of their tank and deposited them in a plastic bag. No wonder they are afraid when they see a human hovering over the pond. Let us hope that these memories will eventually fade, and that our nervous goldfish will begin to swim freely around our pond, just as their predecessors used to do.