[Coral-List] Why do fish swim upside down in caves?

Capman, William capman at augsburg.edu
Mon Feb 8 15:42:52 EST 2016


This ventral surface to the rocks and swimming sideways and upside down
behavior is not seen in all fish of course - not even all reef fish - and
it has always seemed to me that the fish most likely to exhibit this sort
of behavior are ones whose foraging/hunting tends to be focussed on rock
surfaces.  I'm sure there are multiple reasons why various fish species do
this, and why others don't, but this has seemed like a recurring theme to
me (no doubt folks will be able to name lots of exceptions though!).

I first became aware of this sort of behavior as a kid.  My dad and I
raised and bred LOTS of different sorts of fish, mostly freshwater fish,
including a variety of cichlids from around the world.  One of the groups
of fish we kept and bred were Lake Tanganyika cichlids in the genus
Julidochromis, and these exhibit this sort of ventral surface to the rocks
behavior very strongly, particularly when young.  I was totally enchanted
by this behavior in these fish, since it was something I had never seen to
any significant degree in freshwater fish before.  Julidochromis are
extremely rock and cave oriented in their behavior (they seem to me to be
sort of extreme even as rift lake cichlids go, even compared to the various
Lake Malawi mbuna species).  They even spawn upside down in tight spaces,
gluing their eggs to the ceilings of caves.  And my impression is that in
nature they forage a lot off of rock surfaces, and apparently they are one
of the few groups of freshwater fishes that eat significant amounts of
sponges!

On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 8:38 AM, William Precht <william.precht at gmail.com>
wrote:

> When I took my first class in Coral Reef Ecology back in 1978 this was a
> topic of great interest.
>
> I pulled this reference out of my required reading list from that course.
> It may answer a lot of these questions.
>
> Meyer, D.L., Heiligenberg, W. and Bullock, T.H., 1976. The ventral
> substrate response - A new postural control mechanism in fishes. *Journal
> of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral
> Physiology*, *109*(1), pp.59-68.
>
> "Some fishes show a tendency to orient their ventral side towards a
> substrate and may thus tilt considerably when swimming near vertical walls
> or even under the ceiling of caves. This behavior was named the*Ventral
> Substrate Response (VSR)* and was quantitatively studied in the black
> croaker (*Cheilotrema saturnum*, Sciaenidae) and in the weakly electric
> fish *Eigenmannia* sp. (Rhamphichthyidae)..."
>
> Hope this helps!
>
> cheers,
>
> Bill
>
> On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 2:26 PM, Magnus Johnson <m.johnson at hull.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > I remember talking to Mike Land on the RRS Discovery about some
> > mesopelagic amphipods he had been looking at.  The assumption was that
> > their bilobed eye was an adaption for the differences in light
> > quality/quantity depending on whther you looked up or down.  The ventral
> > portion of the eye was apparently adapted for dim environments while the
> > dorsal was adapted for vertically downwelling light.  It all made perfect
> > sense (and was seen for example in mesopelagic decapods).  However when
> he
> > observed the animals in a tank he thought that they were  sometimes using
> > the dorsal portion of their eye to scan (as we might with our fovea) and
> > swam in all sorts of orientations.  Shaun Collin did lots of interesting
> > work on the retinae of reef and deep sea teleosts and found that the
> foveal
> > geography reflected their lifestyle.
> >
> > So my guess would be that fish can swim upside-down as easily as the
> > "right way" around and their eyes will be adapted to a particular
> > orientation with respect to the "bottom" (as suggested below).  Whatever,
> > "Ecovisiology" is very cool!
> >
> > Collin S, Partridge J (1996) Fish Vision: Retinal specializations in the
> > eyes of deep-sea teleosts. J Fish Biol 49:157–174.
> > Johnson M, Shelton P, Gaten E, Herring P (2000) Relationship of
> > dorsoventral eyeshine distributions to habitat depth and animal size in
> > mesopelagic decapods. Biol Bull 199:6–13.
> > Land MF (2009) Locomotion and visual behaviour of mid-Water crustaceans..
> J
> > Mar Biol Assoc United Kingdom 72:41. doi: 10.1017/S0025315400048773
> >
> > ________________________________________
> > From: BRUCE CARLSON [exallias2 at gmail.com]
> > Sent: 04 February 2016 19:58
> > To: psammarco at lumcon.edu
> > Cc: Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Why do fish swim upside down in caves?
> >
> > I think of it this way:  if I’m lying on the floor, I have a very hard
> > time eating if I’m on my back; roll over and it’s easy to eat.  OK,
> that’s
> > not quite the same as this situation, but perhaps for the grouper there
> is
> > a greater efficiency feeding if your ventral side stays oriented towards
> > the substratum, especially if you’re a carnivore feeding on fish that
> might
> > pop out of the holes.  I can’t quite imagine how they would feed
> > efficiently with their back to the rock.   Other larger groupers that may
> > not feed on little fish in holes would be better off just remaining in
> the
> > “normal” orientation.
> >
> > Just guessing.
> > Bruce
> >
> >
> > > On Feb 4, 2016, at 5:25 AM, Paul Sammarco <psammarco at lumcon.edu>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear Charles,
> > >
> > > Hello.  This is all a guessing game, but my suspicion is that the
> > phenomenon may be a combination of two things.  Firstly, where is direct
> or
> > reflected light coming from?  Which way is it light, and which way is it
> > dark?  Also, perhaps it's also a matter of looking dorsally for
> predators..
> > They should certainly know which way is up and which way is down.
> > >
> > > Food for thought.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > > Paul
> > >
> > > Paul W. Sammarco, Ph.D.
> > > Professor
> > > Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON)
> > > 8124 Hwy. 56
> > > Chauvin, LA  70344-2110
> > >
> > > 1-985-851-2876 (tel)
> > > 1-985-851-2874 (FAX)
> > > 1-985-232-6575 (Cell)
> > > psammarco at lumcon.edu
> > > www.lumcon.edu
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:
> > coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Charles Delbeek
> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2016 3:22 PM
> > > To: Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > > Subject: [Coral-List] Why do fish swim upside down in caves?
> > >
> > > Our exhibit design consultant asked me this question concerning
> > Cephalopholis polleni.
> > >
> > > My thoughts were that since these fish are bottom oriented they feel
> > more secure with something on their ventral surface, I also believe they
> > can see more what is ahead and below them where most predators come from
> > for bottom oriented fish?? Also when a fish swims into a cave or overhang
> > they are swimming down a reef face and coming across the opening so it is
> > safer to remain oriented to the rock face then twisting and turning as
> they
> > enter to cave/crevice. Also the shelter holes are in the ceiling so it is
> > easier to dart into them when it is below them then above their line of
> > sight, but I am just guessing on these.
> > >
> > > Anyone have something more definitive on this?
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance!
> > >
> > > Best regards,
> > >
> > >
> > > *J. Charles Delbeek, M.Sc. *Assistant Curator, Steinhart Aquarium
> > California Academy of Sciences
> > >
> > > Desk: 415.379.5303
> > > Fax: 415.379.5304
> > >
> > >
> > > *cdelbeek at calacademy.org <cdelbeek at calacademy.org> *www.calacademy.org
> > >
> > > 55 Music Concourse Dr.
> > >
> > > Golden Gate Park
> > >
> > > San Francisco CA 94118
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Discover nature’s secret language in *Color of Life*, a dazzling new
> > exhibit—now open.
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > >
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> >
> > BRUCE CARLSON
> > exallias2 at gmail.com
> > BCarlson at GeorgiaAquarium.org
> >
> > Carbon-dioxide concentrations hit their highest level in 4m years <
> >
> http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21577342-carbon-dioxide-concentrations-hit-their-highest-level-4m-years-measure&ct=ga&cad=CAEQAhgAIAAoATAAOABAg-SwjAVIAVAAWABiBWVuLVVT&cd=i9IW-ZD9Lxc&usg=AFQjCNFYqbjH-5nMF6If2GtXM1bbeZhjNQ
> > >
> > The Economist <x-msg://267/>
> >
> > AT NOON on May 4th, 2013, the carbon-dioxide concentration in the
> > atmosphere around the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii hit 400 parts per
> > million (ppm).
> >
> >
> >
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