B13
Fish Crazy
Here's a funny thing that has got me thinking:
Nibbler (the BN plec) is as regular as clockwork. As soon as the tank lights go out at 7pm, he glides in from where ever he's been hanging out all day, and comes in to land directly under the hole in the tank glass where I pop in his plec flakes and pellet.
Now I was thinking that his cue is the lights going out - which would seem pretty obvious! But last night (bearing in mind that the clocks went back) Nibbler didn't appear until an hour after 'lights out' (i.e. 8pm for us, but still 7pm for him) and by that time, the greedy Danios had wolfed down the pellet!!
It's obviously not the light going out that's cued him, it's some kind of internal body clock (circadian rhythm) possibly?
So...
How accurately can fish 'tell the time' (without any external cues) Does anyone else have fish that are good timekeepers?
Nibbler (the BN plec) is as regular as clockwork. As soon as the tank lights go out at 7pm, he glides in from where ever he's been hanging out all day, and comes in to land directly under the hole in the tank glass where I pop in his plec flakes and pellet.
Now I was thinking that his cue is the lights going out - which would seem pretty obvious! But last night (bearing in mind that the clocks went back) Nibbler didn't appear until an hour after 'lights out' (i.e. 8pm for us, but still 7pm for him) and by that time, the greedy Danios had wolfed down the pellet!!
It's obviously not the light going out that's cued him, it's some kind of internal body clock (circadian rhythm) possibly?
So...
How accurately can fish 'tell the time' (without any external cues) Does anyone else have fish that are good timekeepers?
