This article that I have just read talks about an experiment that scientists held in an aquarium. They mimic the aquatic environment of a river in Sweden and that includes the water having a low concentration of anti-anxiety drug diluted into the water. Scientists have found that fish that are more exposed to this drug then become anti-social, they act more boldly and eat more quickly. Anti-anxiety drugs consumed by human makes us less anxious and it treats panic attacks. The same effect takes place in these fish, these drugs decrease the anxiety and stress that animals usually feel in order to not take warrant risks and cause them to act less cautiously.
Fish become exposed to these condition due to the drug excreted by human, washed down the sewage and into the rivers.
First, the headline of this article caught my attention immediately after I saw it. I know that human drugs can have the similar effect in animals, but I have never considered the effect of anti-anxiety drugs on fish, never. I learned that these type of drugs can have similar effect on fish but they may not be as useful as they are to human, considering that wild animals need anxiety in order to survive in nature and it can even be dangerous for animals to lack that survival factor.
This raised a few questions:
1) Is this effect the same as other animals or types of fish?
2) Other than the decrease in cautiousness is this dangerous to fish and their survival in the environment?
