How does a fish identify another fish?
- Thread starter Navyblue
- Start date
I'd say there are several steps: pattern recognition---this is my species. Killer whales react to images of their species. Then motion recognition: because we live in air, and use sound, we don't recognize that body motion could rearrange the environment in a similar way: wiggles and water make a current we wouldn't read, but I'm betting fish do. And finally chemical recognition: when they've let the other close, probably the chemicals of their slime coat 'smell' right, and probably 'smell' like the particular 'nem they call home. Human brains aren't set up to react strongly to pheromones on a conscious level, though we do subconsciously: we just don't intellectualize most smells, and likewise the olfactory bulb near the base of the brain operates in a 'forgetting' and 'remembering' sort of way: if we're around a smell constantly it just wears out the receptors and we stop 'smelling' it though the odor is there; but if we haven't smelled it in a while it gets our attention. Lower animals may actually spend more neural circuits than we do, proportionately, on attention to smells.
Dave Thebrewguy
New member
While you and I might not notice subtle variation in shapes or markings (or even scale placement, etc), these things may be quite obvious to a fish,
OTOH, when I walk past my tank from left to right, the fish all go nuts and head for the corner where food enters the tank. They also do this when my wife walks by, but she has never fed them. I suspect that they are as accomplished at identifying a single human as we are at identifying a single fish.
If anyone has a gorilla in the area, we could test to see if fish can tell one primate species from another as well as we can tell one fish species from the next.
OTOH, when I walk past my tank from left to right, the fish all go nuts and head for the corner where food enters the tank. They also do this when my wife walks by, but she has never fed them. I suspect that they are as accomplished at identifying a single human as we are at identifying a single fish.
If anyone has a gorilla in the area, we could test to see if fish can tell one primate species from another as well as we can tell one fish species from the next.
SushiGirl
Premium Member
I'm going with Sk8r on this one.
I did discover that one of my fish (Orbic Cardinal) distinguishes between me & any others. He follows me all around the tank, he'll watch my boyfriend but not follow him, and he hides from strangers. I pretty much figured it was by figure/motion recognition until my mom came over. We sound alike. He did not hide from her even though he hides from others my size. He followed both of us around the tank. Of course I talk to him, as does my boyfriend, and my mom & I were both talking by the tank.
I found an article about a study on this, but the result was they don't really know either & the "answers" were not any different than those presented here. :lol:
I did discover that one of my fish (Orbic Cardinal) distinguishes between me & any others. He follows me all around the tank, he'll watch my boyfriend but not follow him, and he hides from strangers. I pretty much figured it was by figure/motion recognition until my mom came over. We sound alike. He did not hide from her even though he hides from others my size. He followed both of us around the tank. Of course I talk to him, as does my boyfriend, and my mom & I were both talking by the tank.
I found an article about a study on this, but the result was they don't really know either & the "answers" were not any different than those presented here. :lol:
