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Are Fish Colourblind?


Guest shamrock

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Guest shamrock

I hear advised that match anglers tend to use a darker coloured groundbait as I read in G. Marsdens` Advanced Coarse Fishing many moons ago that fish tend to steer away from, for eg, a bed of white crumb. Show themselves to predators.

Can we assume, (and I know the above is a monochrome issue, like our canine friends) that fishies are colourblind. Is it commercial pressures that sway us to start colouring our baits? I know bait colourings aren`t expensive.

Red/ white maggots. There seems to be a preference?

But boilies, adding colourings? I don`t think so!

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Fish, from what I understand, have color vision that is superior to that of humans in that they can see colors and many can see further into the IR & UV than we can.

 

I do a lot of lure fishing and there are days when the color of lure is critical. If you get a chance to look at a US site dealing with fishing soft-plastics, you will see a great deal of discussion about the colors to use.

 

The above being said, fish likely do not see colors as we see them and water clarity/depth has a huge effect with certain colors losing clarity as you go deeper.

 

Also, back to another point from above, they probably do not see the colors as we do so that what looks like a color-match to us may not look at all the same to fish. 2 boilies, both "red" but done with different dyes may look totally different to the fish.

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Guest Gaffer

Remember this.......

 

Danny Precious

New Poster posted 28 September 2000 02:28 PM --------------------------------------------------------------------

Are we all sitting comfortably?....then I shall begin.....

Apologies in advance to anyone who recognises the experiment and spots any slight mistakes I may have made in my translation.

 

The experiment was split into three stages and involved the use of a single goldfish in a common or garden goldfish bowl and three different coloured tubes through which the goldfish would be fed. I am not 100% sure of the colour of the tubes but I'll say they were red, yellow and blue. The tubes were placed next to each other in a row on the edge of the bowl.

 

Stage 1: When the goldfish was fed it was done by pouring food through the red tube and only ever the red tube. After a short while the goldfish would automatically go to the red tube to feed. When the order of the tubes on the side of the bowl was changed the fish still went to the red tube to feed. This was then done with the other coloured tubes and again after a short while it appeared that the fish recognised which colour tube it was going to be fed through regardless of whether that tube was first, second or third in the row of tubes.

 

Stage 2: Instead of colour food was always fed to the fish through the first tube. After a short while the fish soon appeared to learn that food came from the first tube only and would automatically go to that tube to feed. Even when the colour of the first tube was changed the fish still went to the first tube to feed. Again this was done with the second and third tubes and again the fish soon learnt that, regardless of colour, they were the tubes from which food could be found.

 

Stage 3: Food was fed randomly through any colour tube in any position. The scientist writing the report noted that he could only describe the behaviour of the fish as that similar to someone who was going through a nervous breakdown. It would not feed and spent the majority of its "skulking" on the bottom of the bowl. Soon after this the fish was released into a friends garden pond and was apparently still happily swimming around in there some years later.

 

There you have it, read into it what you will!

 

I will be going to a meeting sometime in October and I am likely to bump into the the guy who originally showed me the article. I know he uses the notes of the above described experiment in his teaching of A level psychology so I'll get some more details off him if I can.

 

Hope I haven't bored you all to death

 

 

------------------

Regards

 

Danny

 

....certainly makes you think, doesn't it?!

 

 

------------------

All the best,

 

Gaffer

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Guest shamrock

But one in five humans are. I am. How many colour blind fish have you caught this season? Now, be honest!!

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Ahhh Shamrock - but being colour blind is not "anti-survival" for humans in this day and age - except for driving (traffic lights) and sea boating (to tell the location and direction of another boat). Even then, you only need red-green colour vision which is the least likely to be lost. I think only a very small fraction of people who are colour blind are completely so.

 

If fish need colour vision to compete for food and to stay safe, I doubt that many colour blind fish would live to breeding age.

 

Edit note: You folk should be proud of this Yank. I mis-spelled color every time to match up with your strange notion of how it should be spelt. biggrin.gif Well, at least I did in this post. Used US spelling above though. eek.gif

 

[This message has been edited by Newt (edited 13 June 2001).]

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Guest RAY OWEN

Hi Shamrock,

As an avid match angler i to use the darker coloured groundbaits. To find out what colour maggots are being taken i some times put one red and one white on the hook and see what comes back supped. More often than not one will come back completly smashed and the other intack, so from this i dont think that fish are colour blind

 

Ray

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Guest Big Nick

As an interesting footnote to this I have found certain fish prefer certain colours. When I was younger I fished for Perch and found they preferred yellow maggots and Bream and Tench seem to like red.

 

Most have heard of the effectiveness of using red tags for Pike.

 

 

------------------

Big Nick

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Guest tony jolley

If fish were colour blind they wouldn`t need camoflarge as every thing would look gray,

and so would they,

imagine how boreing the fish would look without those bright red fins saying "danger keep away!"

We would never know if an individual fish is colour blind anyway.

I know that carp which have been caught a few times on say corn will keep away from any bait thats yellow,

And Perch will take at red wool on the treble, could that be becouse the roach as red fins?

 

------------------

Tony B.T Jolley

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Guest shamrock
Originally posted by Newt:

Ahhh Shamrock - but being colour blind is not "anti-survival" for humans in this day and age - except for driving (traffic lights) and sea boating (to tell the location and direction of another boat). Even then, you only need red-green colour vision which is the least likely to be lost. I think only a very small fraction of people who are colour blind are completely so.

 

If fish need colour vision to compete for food and to stay safe, I doubt that many colour blind fish would live to breeding age.

 

Edit note: You folk should be proud of this Yank. I mis-spelled color every time to match up with your strange notion of how it should be spelt. biggrin.gif Well, at least I did in this post. Used US spelling above though. eek.gif

 

[This message has been edited by Newt (edited 13 June 2001).]

 

I thought fish went by another sense, called smell blah, blah ..etc from a distance, home in etc. Why wasn`t I born with barbels on the end of my mouth?

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