Veeerrryyy Interesting. I could see the barbs together. Maybe the Bala was just a follower! Surely there are leaders and those who just blindly follow the pack as with any species of other animals.
School those tetras
- Thread starter bobandfiona
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People tend to apply a primary importance on sight, since we ourselves depend on it more than any other sense.
However, the predominant sensory system in fishes as a whole tends to be chemoreception. For something that applies to the original question, consider that Phoxinus sp. can differentiate between at least 14 different species of fish based on smell alone. This capacity is on par with being 2000x as sensitive as our own smell reception.
However, the predominant sensory system in fishes as a whole tends to be chemoreception. For something that applies to the original question, consider that Phoxinus sp. can differentiate between at least 14 different species of fish based on smell alone. This capacity is on par with being 2000x as sensitive as our own smell reception.
Most likely instincts passed on from generation to generation. They school to confuse the predator by either making it harder to pinpoint a single fish or to make it look like a big fish! Just because we take the fish and put them in our aquariums, doesn't mean they'll lose this "instinct".
Raskolnikov said:
Do you mean like human pheramones only that each type of fish has its own "identifier?" I tried looking this up on the web and didn't find much...being into molecular biology, this topic is very interesting. In the animal world, they all use similar uncognitive smell reception...do you know of any research in the fish world on this? That seems very logical.
As we are on pondering topics - do fish see in color? Does anyone also know if they see better in the dark or light?
I would assume alot of it has to do with coloration and markings and then it is done by sight.
I'm a big fan of watching discovery channel shows and some of the deep sea shows describe fish interacting via the markings, and fin behavior, also some deep dwellers have built in luminescence to communicate.. but more often then not those fish seem to do it for defensive communication.
Puffer fish are an example I suppose too in body language.. they Puff up
Something on the chemical basis would be interesting indeed, because smell would really carry in water if the secreate something. I know some species can do this, but anything kept in a home aquarium I do not know of.. only thing that immediately comes to mind of a water breed that secreats anything is the Octorpus with it's ink for defense.. but I do know other types do with poisons etc..
I'm a big fan of watching discovery channel shows and some of the deep sea shows describe fish interacting via the markings, and fin behavior, also some deep dwellers have built in luminescence to communicate.. but more often then not those fish seem to do it for defensive communication.
Puffer fish are an example I suppose too in body language.. they Puff up
Something on the chemical basis would be interesting indeed, because smell would really carry in water if the secreate something. I know some species can do this, but anything kept in a home aquarium I do not know of.. only thing that immediately comes to mind of a water breed that secreats anything is the Octorpus with it's ink for defense.. but I do know other types do with poisons etc..
