Published 16:06 IST, November 12th 2019
Clown Fish use secret Ultraviolet light to find friends and food: Reports
Finding Nemo's clown fist use secret Ultra Violet rays to find friends, foes and food more efficiently according to researchers at University of Queensland!!
Made famous by the widely successful children's movie Finding Nemo, the Anemonefish as it is known to scientists has been discovered to have a secret channel which it uses to find both friends and foes, and also food. More commonly referred to as the Clown Fish because of their striking orange and white patterns, the creature has caught the eye of scientists from the University of Queensland.
How UV works...
Researchers at Queensland Brain Institute and the University of Maryland have analyzed almost every aspect of the fish starting from the genes they use to see to the type of proteins they express. Researchers have discovered that unlike humans, the Anemonefish's eyes detect a combination of violet light and ultraviolet light. The fish seem to be very good at distinguishing colour and very good at seeing UV. This ability is very useful since UV lights penetrate very easily near the surface of the water where the clownfish usually live.
A lot of uses...
The anemonefish mainly feed on zooplankton that absorbs UV light, thus the clown fish's ability to perceive and in this case see the gaps in UV light mean that they are able to locate their food source with great efficiency. Since the white stripes of the clownfish are able to reflect UV lights they are able to quickly determine friends from foe, meaning predators that eat anemone fish. An important point to be noted in their favour would be that these predators can not perceive UV rays and thus the clownfish can be as flashy as they want without being 'seen' by their predators. The anemonefish that are found in the Great Barrier Reef where the study was conducted are basically Nemo's cousins and are as flash as their cousins because of their secret channel.
Therefore, the anemonefish also called the 'clownfish', that was made famous by the 2003 Pixar movie "Finding Nemo" can be easily be recognized by their striking orange and white patterns. While to us they may appear flashy their secret UV channel allows them to avoid the detection of predators also while allowing them to locate friends and food much more easily.
Updated 13:30 IST, November 13th 2019