Catfish barbels detect prey by sensing pH changes
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
I wonder if all catfish work that way. And is it the sole detection method or is physical contact a secondary method. Our fingers for example can feel heat in the air before touching a hot object.
This is very interesting.
Correct me if I am wrong but to my understanding all fish have some sort of lateral line.
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Correct me if I am wrong but to my understanding all fish have some sort of lateral line.
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Thanks for the link TBTB. It makes you wonder if all cats can sense ph changes and what other abilities their barbels have to detect things in their environment.
It turns out not all fish have ‘lateral lines’. However, all fish have some sort of neuromasts which help them detect pressure changes in the water. Lateral lines are neuromasts which can be seen as lines along the fish’s side. Skates, rays and sharks have neuromast canals while the blind cavefish has neuromasts in lines on it’s head.
Catfish do have lateral lines there are very few fish that don't. Yours and lyfeoffishing posts made me curious enough to look it up.
It turns out not all fish have ‘lateral lines’. However, all fish have some sort of neuromasts which help them detect pressure changes in the water. Lateral lines are neuromasts which can be seen as lines along the fish’s side. Skates, rays and sharks have neuromast canals while the blind cavefish has neuromasts in lines on it’s head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_line
The lateral line is a system of sense organs found in aquatic vertebrates, mainly fish, used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial cells, known as hair cells, which respond to displacement caused by motion, movement and transduce these signals into electrical impulses via excitatory synapses. Lateral lines serve an important role in schooling behavior, predation, and orientation. For example, fish can use their lateral line system to follow the vortices produced by fleeing prey. They are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail. In some species, the receptive organs of the lateral line have been modified to function as electroreceptors, which are organs used to detect electrical impulses, and as such these systems remain closely linked. Most amphibian larvae and some fully aquatic adult amphibians possess mechanosensitive systems comparable to the lateral line.
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Correct me if I am wrong, I vaguely recall the lateral line takes part in global orientation of an animal sensing the electromagnetic field of earth, which allows animals to migrate annually in the "right" direction. Kind of a compass.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbel_(anatomy)
A barbel on a fish is a slender, whiskerlike tactile organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, hagfish, sturgeon, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and some species of shark. They house the taste buds of such fish and are used to search for food in murky water.
Barbels are often erroneously referred to as barbs, which are found in bird feathers for flight.
Barbels may be located in a variety of places. Maxillary barbels refer to barbels on either side of the mouth. Barbels may also be nasal, or extended from the nostrils. Also, barbels are often mandibular or mental, or located on the chin.
The lateral line is a system of sense organs found in aquatic vertebrates, mainly fish, used to detect movement and vibration in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial cells, known as hair cells, which respond to displacement caused by motion, movement and transduce these signals into electrical impulses via excitatory synapses. Lateral lines serve an important role in schooling behavior, predation, and orientation. For example, fish can use their lateral line system to follow the vortices produced by fleeing prey. They are usually visible as faint lines running lengthwise down each side, from the vicinity of the gill covers to the base of the tail. In some species, the receptive organs of the lateral line have been modified to function as electroreceptors, which are organs used to detect electrical impulses, and as such these systems remain closely linked. Most amphibian larvae and some fully aquatic adult amphibians possess mechanosensitive systems comparable to the lateral line.
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Correct me if I am wrong, I vaguely recall the lateral line takes part in global orientation of an animal sensing the electromagnetic field of earth, which allows animals to migrate annually in the "right" direction. Kind of a compass.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbel_(anatomy)
A barbel on a fish is a slender, whiskerlike tactile organ near the mouth. Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, hagfish, sturgeon, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and some species of shark. They house the taste buds of such fish and are used to search for food in murky water.
Barbels are often erroneously referred to as barbs, which are found in bird feathers for flight.
Barbels may be located in a variety of places. Maxillary barbels refer to barbels on either side of the mouth. Barbels may also be nasal, or extended from the nostrils. Also, barbels are often mandibular or mental, or located on the chin.
Are you sure cavefish don't have a lateral line? In this pic it definitely looks to have one in my eyes
And shark skates and rays do have lateral lines. And sharks also posses Ampullae of Lorenzini which is all over their snots which help them detect electrical pulses.
Also if you could maybe point out some fish that don't have lateral lines I'd appreciate it as I couldn't find any examples.
This is the cavefish where it looks like it has a lateral line.
I could be wrong, because I just did the search when you posed the question but here are some of the sources I used.
http://ocr.org/bioacoustics/how-fish-hear/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/331503/lateral-line-system
From my understanding all fish have the organs neuromasts which is what 'lateral lines' are constructed of but instead of being arranged in a line running along the length of the body like most fish certain fish instead have them located in central clusters about the head etc. like the shark who has them concentrated in clusters about the head in canals. Perhaps my understanding is in error.
http://ocr.org/bioacoustics/how-fish-hear/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/331503/lateral-line-system
From my understanding all fish have the organs neuromasts which is what 'lateral lines' are constructed of but instead of being arranged in a line running along the length of the body like most fish certain fish instead have them located in central clusters about the head etc. like the shark who has them concentrated in clusters about the head in canals. Perhaps my understanding is in error.
The second article is somewhat misleading. It says some of the neuromasts have been evolutionarily modified but should have stated not all of them. Sharks still posses a real "lateral line" if you should say. Just look at a shark and it's usually where the white under belly turns I to the darker top portion of the shark. Here's a pic of a little blacktip recently caught the lateral line is right ontop of the flash mark below his dorsal fin.
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