What is the color of the fish. Coloration of fish, its biological significance. Naturally, the color of the body of the fish is closely related to the lighting conditions.
The color of fish can be surprisingly diverse, but all possible shades of their color are due to the work of special cells called chromatophores. They are found in a specific layer of the fish's skin and contain several types of pigments. Chromatophores are divided into several types. Firstly, these are melanophores containing a black pigment called melanin. Further, etitrophores, containing red pigment, and xanthophores, in which it is yellow. The latter type is sometimes called lipophores because the carotenoids that make up the pigment in these cells are dissolved in lipids. Guanophores or iridocytes contain guanine, which gives the color of fish a silvery color and metallic luster. The pigments contained in chromatophores differ chemically in terms of stability, solubility in water, sensitivity to air, and some other features. The chromatophores themselves are also not the same in shape - they can be either stellate or rounded. Many colors in the coloration of fish are obtained by imposing some chromatophores on others, this possibility is provided by the occurrence of cells in the skin on different depth. For example, green color is obtained when deep-lying guanophores are combined with xanthophores and erythrophores covering them. If you add melanophores, the body of the fish becomes blue.
Chromatophores do not have nerve endings, with the exception of melanophores. They are even involved in two systems at once, having both sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation. Other types of pigment cells are controlled humorally.
The color of fish is quite important for their life. Coloring functions are divided into patronizing and warning. The first option is designed to mask the body of the fish in environment, so usually this coloration consists of soothing colors. Warning coloring, on the contrary, includes a large number of bright spots and contrasting colors. Its functions are different. In poisonous predators, which usually say with the brightness of their body: “Don’t come near me!”, It plays a deterrent role. Territorial fish guarding their home are brightly colored in order to warn the rival that the place is occupied and to attract the female. A kind of warning coloration is also the marriage attire of fish.
Depending on the habitat, the body color of the fish acquires character traits, allowing to distinguish pelagic, bottom, thicket and schooling colors.
Thus, the color of fish depends on many factors, including habitat, lifestyle and nutrition, season, and even the mood of the fish.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
The color of the fish is very diverse. AT Far Eastern waters inhabited by small (8-10 centimeters1), smelt-like noodle-fish with a colorless, completely transparent body: the insides are visible through the thin skin. Near sea shore, where the water foams so often, the herds of this fish are invisible. Seagulls manage to eat "noodles" only when the fish jump out and appear above the water. But the same whitish coastal waves that protect the fish from birds often destroy them: on the shores you can sometimes see whole shafts of fish noodles thrown out by the sea. It is believed that after the first spawning, this fish dies. This phenomenon is characteristic of some fish. So cruel nature! The sea throws out both living and “noodles” that died of natural death.
Since fish noodles are usually found in large herds, they should have been used; in part, it is still mined. 
There are other fish with a transparent body, for example, the deep-sea Baikal golomyanka, which we will discuss in more detail below.
At the far eastern tip of Asia, in the lakes of the Chukchi Peninsula, there is a black dallium fish. Its length is up to 20 centimeters. The black coloration makes the fish unobtrusive. Dallium lives in peaty dark-water rivers, lakes and swamps, buries itself in wet moss and grass for the winter. Outwardly, dahlia looks like common fish, but it differs from them in that its bones are tender, thin, and some are completely absent (there are no infraorbital bones). But this fish has highly developed pectoral fins. Do not fins such as shoulder blades help fish burrow into the soft bottom of the reservoir in order to survive in the winter cold? Brook trout are colored with black, blue and red spots of various sizes. If you look closely, you can see that the trout changes its clothes: during the spawning period, it is dressed in a particularly flowery “dress”, at other times - in more modest clothes. 
A small minnow fish, which can be found in almost every cool stream and lake, has an unusually variegated color: the back is greenish, the sides are yellow with gold and silver reflections, the abdomen is red, yellowish fins are with a dark rim. In a word, the minnow is small in stature, but he has a lot of force. Apparently, for this he was nicknamed "buffoon", such a name is perhaps more fair than "minnow", since the minnow is not at all naked, but has scales.
The most brightly colored fish are marine, especially tropical waters. Many of them can successfully compete with birds of paradise. There are no flowers here! Red, ruby, turquoise, black velvet ... They are surprisingly harmoniously combined with each other. Curly, as if honed by skilled craftsmen, the fins and body of some fish are decorated with geometrically regular stripes.
In nature among corals and sea lilies these colorful fish are a fabulous picture. Here is what he writes about tropical fish the famous Swiss scientist Keller in the book "The Life of the Sea": "The fish of the coral reefs are the most elegant sight. Their colors are not inferior in brightness and brilliance to coloring. tropical butterflies and birds. Azure, yellowish green, velvety black and striped fish flicker and curl in whole crowds. You involuntarily take up the net to catch them, but ... one blink of an eye - and they all disappear. With a laterally compressed body, they can easily penetrate the cracks and crevices of coral reefs.
The well-known pikes and perches have greenish stripes on their bodies, which mask these predators in the grassy thickets of rivers and lakes and help to quietly approach the prey. But the pursued fish (bleak, roach, etc.) also have patronizing coloration: the white abdomen makes them almost invisible when viewed from below, the dark back is not striking when viewed from above.
Fish living in the upper layers of the water have a more silvery color. Deeper than 100-500 meters there are red fish ( sea bass), pink (liparis) and dark brown (pinagore) flowers. At depths exceeding 1000 meters, the fish are predominantly dark in color (anglerfish). In the area of ocean depths, more than 1700 meters the color of the fish is black, blue, purple.
The color of the fish largely depends on the color of the water and the bottom.
AT clear waters bersh, which is usually gray in color, is distinguished by whiteness. Against this background, dark transverse stripes stand out especially sharply. In shallow swampy lakes, perch is black, and in rivers flowing from peat bogs, blue and yellow perch are found.
Volkhov whitefish, which was once in large numbers lived in the Volkhov Bay and the Volkhov River, which flows through limestone, differs from all Ladoga whitefish in light scales. According to it, this whitefish is easy to find in the total catch of Ladoga whitefish.
Among the whitefish of the northern half of Lake Ladoga, there is a black whitefish (in Finnish it is called "musta siyka", which means "black whitefish").
The black color of the northern Ladoga whitefish, like the light Volkhov one, remains quite stable: the black whitefish, finding itself in southern Ladoga, does not lose its color. But over time, after many generations, the descendants of this whitefish, who remained to live in southern Ladoga, will lose their black color. Therefore, this feature may vary depending on the color of the water.
After low tide, the flounder remaining in the coastal gray mud is almost completely invisible: grey colour her back merges with the color of silt. The flounder did not acquire such a protective coloration at the moment when it found itself on a dirty shore, but inherited it from its near and distant ancestors. But fish are capable of changing color very quickly. Put a minnow or other brightly colored fish in a black-bottomed tank and after a while you will see that the color of the fish has faded.
There are many surprising things in the coloring of fish. Among the fish that live at depths where even a weak ray of the sun does not penetrate, there are brightly colored ones.
It also happens like this: in a flock of fish with a color common to a given species, individuals of white or black color come across; in the first case, so-called albinism is observed, in the second - melanism.
I, Pravdin "The story of the life of fish" V. Sabunaev, "Entertaining ichthyology"
The coloration of fish, including the color pattern, is an important signal. The main function of color is to help members of the same species find and identify each other as potential sexual partners, rivals, or members of the same pack. Demonstration of a certain coloration may not go further than this.
Fish of certain species take on one color or another, demonstrating their readiness for spawning. The bright colors of the fins make a proper impression on potential sexual partners. Occasionally, a mature female will develop a brightly colored area on her belly, emphasizing its rounded shape and indicating that it is filled with caviar. Fish that have a specific bright spawning coloration may appear dull and inconspicuous when not spawning. A noticeable appearance makes the fish more vulnerable to predators, and predatory fish unmasks.
Spawning coloration may also serve as a stimulus for competition, for example in competition for a spawning partner or for spawning territory. The preservation of such coloration after the end of spawning would be completely meaningless, and perhaps even clearly unfavorable for schooling fish.
Some fish have an even more highly developed "language" of coloration, and they can use it, for example, to demonstrate their status in a group of fish of the same species: the brighter and more challenging the coloring and pattern, the higher the status. They can also use coloring to show threat ( bright coloring) or submission (dim or less bright color), and often this is accompanied by gestures, body language of fish.
Some fish showing parental care for offspring have a special coloration when guarding young. This coloration of the watchman is used to warn uninvited guests or draw attention to yourself, distracting from the fry. scientific experiments showed that parents use certain types coloring to attract fry (to make it easier for them to find their parents). Even more remarkable is that some fish use body and fin movements and coloration to give various instructions to their fry, for example: "Swim here!", "Follow me" or "Hide at the bottom!"
It must be assumed that each species of fish has its own "language", corresponding to their special way of life. However, there is strong evidence that closely related fish species clearly understand each other's basic signals, although they most likely do not have the slightest idea what members of another fish family are "talking" to each other. By the way, the zooportal jokingly disassembled the fish by color:
The aquarist cannot "answer" the fish in their language, but in sioah he can recognize some of the signals given by the fish. This will allow predicting the actions of underwater inhabitants, for example, to notice the approaching spawning, or the growing conflict.
RELATED COMMENTS
Add your comment
Fish aggression can be a serious problem in an aquarium. She is the most common cause wounds. Usually these are damages caused either directly during the attack, or in a collision with objects of interior decoration or aquarium equipment ...
Fish are known to use a variety of ways to communicate with each other. Knifefish produce electrical impulses with which they communicate with each other. Other breeds make audible sounds. Scientific research showed that there are fish that emit sound waves, ...
Otocinclus, as a true vegetarian, a significant amount of food is needed and their abdomen must always be full. It is a serious miscalculation to decide that they can exist without feeding. A couple of catfish in a few days clean a 300-liter aquarium from ...
A few words about discus quarantine. No matter how healthy discus appear to be, before launching them into community aquarium subject them ruthlessly quarantine for at least 3-4 weeks. If during transportation the temperature did not fall below ...
The color of the fish is very diverse. Small (8-10 centimeters *), smelt-like noodle fish with a colorless, completely transparent body lives in the Far Eastern waters: the insides shine through the thin skin. Near the seashore, where the water so often foams, the herds of this fish are invisible. Seagulls manage to eat "noodles" only when the fish jump out and appear above the water. But the same whitish coastal waves that protect the fish from birds often destroy them: on the shores you can sometimes see whole shafts of fish noodles thrown out by the sea. It is believed that after the first spawning, this fish dies. This phenomenon is characteristic of some fish. So cruel nature! The sea throws out both living and natural death "noodles".
* (In the text and below the figures, largest dimensions fish)
Since fish noodles are usually found in large herds, they should have been used; in part, it is still mined.
There are other fish with a transparent body, for example, the deep-sea Baikal golomyanka, which we will discuss in more detail below.
At the far eastern tip of Asia, in the lakes of the Chukchi Peninsula, there is a black dallium fish.
Its length is up to 20 centimeters. The black coloration makes the fish unobtrusive. Dallium lives in peaty dark-water rivers, lakes and swamps, buries itself in wet moss and grass for the winter. Outwardly, dallium is similar to ordinary fish, but it differs from them in that its bones are delicate, thin, and some are completely absent (there are no infraorbital bones). But this fish has strongly developed pectoral fins. Do not fins such as shoulder blades help fish burrow into the soft bottom of the reservoir in order to survive in the winter cold?
Brook trout are colored with black, blue and red spots of various sizes. If you look closely, you can see that the trout changes its clothes: during the spawning period, it is dressed in a particularly flowery "dress", at other times - in more modest clothes.
A small minnow fish, which can be found in almost every cool stream and lake, has an unusually variegated color: the back is greenish, the sides are yellow with gold and silver reflections, the abdomen is red, yellowish fins are with a dark rim. In a word, the minnow is small in stature, but he has a lot of force. Apparently, for this he was nicknamed "buffoon", and this name is perhaps more just than "minnow", since the minnow is not at all naked, but has scales.
The most brightly colored fish are marine, especially tropical waters. Many of them can successfully compete with birds of paradise. Look at table 1. There are no flowers here! Red, ruby, turquoise, black velvet ... They are surprisingly harmoniously combined with each other. Curly, as if honed by skilled craftsmen, the fins and body of some fish are decorated with geometrically regular stripes.
In nature, among corals and sea lilies, these colorful fish are a fabulous picture. Here is what the famous Swiss scientist Keller writes about tropical fish in his book "Life of the Sea": "The coral reef fish represent the most elegant sight. Their colors are not inferior in brightness and brilliance to the color of tropical butterflies and birds. Azure, yellowish green, velvety black and striped fish flicker and curl in crowds. You involuntarily take hold of the net to catch them, but .., one blink of an eye - and they all disappear. Possessing a body compressed from the sides, they can easily penetrate into the cracks and crevices of coral reefs. "
The well-known pikes and perches have greenish stripes on their bodies, which mask these predators in the grassy thickets of rivers and lakes and help them approach their prey unnoticed. But the pursued fish (bleak, roach, etc.) also have a protective coloration: the white belly makes them almost invisible when viewed from below, the dark back is not striking when viewed from above.
Fish living in the upper layers of the water have a more silvery color. Deeper than 100-500 meters there are fish of red (sea perch), pink (liparis) and dark brown (pinagora) colors. At depths exceeding 1000 meters, the fish are predominantly dark in color (anglerfish). In the area of ocean depths, more than 1700 meters, the color of fish is black, blue, purple.
The color of the fish largely depends on the color of the water and the bottom.
In transparent WATERS, the bersh, which is usually gray in color, is distinguished by whiteness. Against this background, dark transverse stripes stand out especially sharply. In shallow swampy lakes, perch is black, and in rivers flowing from peat bogs, blue and yellow perch are found.
Volkhov whitefish, which once lived in large numbers in the Volkhov Bay and the Volkhov River, which flows through limestone, differs from all Ladoga whitefish in light scales. According to it, this whitefish is easy to find in the total catch of Ladoga whitefish. Among the whitefish of the northern half of Lake Ladoga, black whitefish are distinguished (in Finnish it is called "musta siyka", which means black whitefish in translation).
The black color of the northern Ladoga whitefish, like the light Volkhov one, remains quite stable: the black whitefish, finding itself in southern Ladoga, does not lose its color. But over time, after many generations, the descendants of this whitefish, who remained to live in southern Ladoga, will lose their black color. Therefore, this feature may vary depending on the color of the water.
After low tide, the flounder remaining in the coastal gray mud is almost completely invisible: the gray color of its back merges with the color of the silt. The flounder did not acquire such a protective coloration at the moment when it found itself on a dirty shore, but received it by inheritance from its neighbors; and distant ancestors. But fish are capable of changing color very quickly. Put a minnow or other brightly colored fish in a black-bottomed tank and after a while you will see that the color of the fish has faded.
There are many surprising things in the coloring of fish. Among the fish that live at depths where even a weak ray of the sun does not penetrate, there are brightly colored ones.
It also happens like this: in a flock of fish with a color common to a given species, individuals of white or black color come across; in the first case, so-called albinism is observed, in the second - melanism.
Fish coloring
The color of the fish is very diverse. Small (8–10 centimeters), smelt-like noodle fish with a colorless, completely transparent body lives in the Far Eastern waters: the insides shine through the thin skin. Near the seashore, where the water so often foams, the herds of this fish are invisible. Seagulls manage to eat "noodles" only when the fish jump out and appear above the water. But the same whitish coastal waves that protect the fish from birds often destroy them: on the shores you can sometimes see whole shafts of fish noodles thrown out by the sea. It is believed that after the first spawning, this fish dies. This phenomenon is characteristic of some fish. So cruel nature! The sea throws out both living and “noodles” that died of natural death.
Since fish noodles are usually found in large herds, they should have been used; in part, it is still mined.
There are other fish with a transparent body, for example, the deep-sea Baikal golomyanka, which we will discuss in more detail below.
At the far eastern tip of Asia, in the lakes of the Chukchi Peninsula, there is a black dallium fish.
Its length is up to 20 centimeters. The black coloration makes the fish unobtrusive. Dallium lives in peaty dark-water rivers, lakes and swamps, buries itself in wet moss and grass for the winter. Outwardly, dallium is similar to ordinary fish, but it differs from them in that its bones are delicate, thin, and some are completely absent (there are no infraorbital bones). But this fish has strongly developed pectoral fins. Do not fins such as shoulder blades help fish burrow into the soft bottom of the reservoir in order to survive in the winter cold?
Brook trout are colored with black, blue and red spots of various sizes. If you look closely, you can see that the trout changes its clothes: during the spawning period, it is dressed in a particularly flowery “dress”, at other times - in more modest clothes.
The small minnow fish, which can be found in almost every cool stream and lake, has an unusually variegated color: the back is greenish, the sides are yellow with gold and silver reflections, the abdomen is red, yellowish fins are with a dark rim. In a word, the minnow is small in stature, but he has a lot of force. Apparently, for this he was nicknamed "buffoon", and such a name is perhaps more just than "minnow", since the minnow is not at all naked, but has scales.
The most brightly colored fish are marine, especially tropical waters. Many of them can successfully compete with birds of paradise. Look at table 1. There are no flowers here! Red, ruby, turquoise, black velvet... They are surprisingly harmoniously combined with each other. Curly, as if honed by skilled craftsmen, the fins and body of some fish are decorated with geometrically regular stripes.
In nature, among corals and sea lilies, these colorful fish are a fabulous picture. Here is what the famous Swiss scientist Keller writes about tropical fish in his book Life of the Sea: “The fish of the coral reefs are the most elegant sight. Their colors are not inferior in brightness and brilliance to the color of tropical butterflies and birds. Azure, yellowish green, velvety black and striped fish flicker and curl in crowds. You involuntarily take hold of the net to catch them, but... one blink of an eye - and they all disappear. With a laterally compressed body, they can easily penetrate the cracks and crevices of coral reefs.
The well-known pikes and perches have greenish stripes on their bodies, which mask these predators in the grassy thickets of rivers and lakes and help them approach their prey unnoticed. But the pursued fish (bleak, roach, etc.) also have a protective coloration: the white belly makes them almost invisible when viewed from below, the dark back is not striking when viewed from above.
Fish living in the upper layers of the water have a more silvery color. Deeper than 100–500 meters, there are fish of red (sea bass), pink (liparis) and dark brown (pinagora) colors. At depths exceeding 1000 meters, the fish are predominantly dark in color (anglerfish). In the area of ocean depths, more than 1700 meters, the color of fish is black, blue, purple.
Table 1. tropical water fish
The color of the fish largely depends on the color of the water and the bottom.
In clear waters, the bersh, which is usually gray in color, is distinguished by whiteness. Against this background, dark transverse stripes stand out especially sharply. In shallow swampy lakes, perch is black, and in rivers flowing from peat bogs, blue and yellow perch are found.
Volkhov whitefish, which once lived in large numbers in the Volkhov Bay and the Volkhov River, which flows through limestone, differs from all Ladoga whitefish in light scales. According to it, this whitefish is easy to find in the total catch of Ladoga whitefish. Among the whitefish of the northern half of Lake Ladoga, black whitefish are distinguished (in Finnish it is called “musta siyka”, which means black whitefish in translation).
The black color of the northern Ladoga whitefish, like the light Volkhov one, remains quite stable: the black whitefish, finding itself in southern Ladoga, does not lose its color. But over time, after many generations, the descendants of this whitefish, who remained to live in southern Ladoga, will lose their black color. Therefore, this feature may vary depending on the color of the water.
After low tide, the flounder remaining in the coastal gray mud is almost completely invisible: the gray color of its back merges with the color of the silt. The flounder did not acquire such a protective coloration at the moment when it found itself on a dirty shore, but inherited it from its near and distant ancestors. But fish are capable of changing color very quickly. Put a minnow or other brightly colored fish in a black-bottomed tank and after a while you will see that the color of the fish has faded.
There are many surprising things in the coloring of fish. Among the fish that live at depths where even a weak ray of the sun does not penetrate, there are brightly colored ones.
It also happens like this: in a flock of fish with a color common to a given species, individuals of white or black color come across; in the first case, the so-called albinism is observed, in the second - melanism.