Weakly electric fish learn both visual and electrosensory cues in a multisensory object discrimination task.

Weakly electric fish use electrosensory, visual, olfactory and lateral line information to guide foraging and navigation behaviors. In many cases they preferentially rely on electrosensory cues. Do fish also memorize non-electrosensory cues? Here, we trained individuals of gymnotiform weakly electric fish Apteronotus albifrons in an object discrimination task. Objects were combinations of differently conductive materials covered with differently colored cotton hoods. By setting visual and electrosensory cues in conflict we analyzed the sensory hierarchy among the electrosensory and the visual sense in object discrimination. Our experiments show that: (i) black ghost knifefish can be trained to solve discrimination tasks similarly to the mormyrid fish; (ii) fish preferentially rely on electrosensory cues for object discrimination; (iii) despite the dominance of the electrosense they still learn the visual cue and use it when electrosensory information is not available; (iv) fish prefer the trained combination of rewarded cues over combinations that match only in a single feature and also memorize the non-rewarded combination.

Red fluorescence increases with depth in reef fishes, supporting a visual function, not UV protection.

Why do some marine fishes exhibit striking patterns of natural red fluorescence? In this study, we contrast two non-exclusive hypotheses: (i) that UV absorption by fluorescent pigments offers significant photoprotection in shallow water, where UV irradiance is strongest; and (ii) that red fluorescence enhances visual contrast at depths below -10 m, where most light in the 'red' 600-700 nm range has been absorbed. Whereas the photoprotection hypothesis predicts fluorescence to be stronger near the surface and weaker in deeper water, the visual contrast hypothesis predicts the opposite. We used fluorometry to measure red fluorescence brightness in vivo in individuals belonging to eight common small reef fish species with conspicuously red fluorescent eyes. Fluorescence was significantly brighter in specimens from the -20 m sites than in those from -5 m sites in six out of eight species. No difference was found in the remaining two. Our results support the visual contrast hypothesis. We discuss the possible roles fluorescence may play in fish visual ecology and highlight the possibility that fluorescent light emission from the eyes in particular may be used to detect cryptic prey.