Burt's Blog

Hey everyone, thanks for coming back! Today I want to tell you about acoustic communication. Not only can fish hear, but a lot of us make sounds too! While we don’t actually ‘talk’, like seen in the movies, we do make sounds for a variety of reasons. Different fish produce sounds using different mechanisms, but the purpose is the same: to communicate with other nearby fish. My friend Todd the Toadfish does it to advertise his location and attract females. Like him, I produce sounds when courting the ladies1. I only make the sounds when performing a little dance, called a courtship quiver, in front of a female (click here for a video of me quivering and to hear the sounds I make). They like it. Actually, females prefer males that make sounds over those that don’t. So the more sounds I make, the more likely I am to get the ladies back to my pot! My human scientists don’t know exactly how I make sounds, but one of my cousins, Niles (a tilapia fish) makes sounds by shaking his body and c...

Hi everyone! Thanks for coming back to my blog! Today I want to talk a little about fish sensory systems. Don’t worry, I’ll focus more in depth on each sense later! Let’s see… where should I begin? Well did you know that I can see, hear, smell, and taste – just like you! My eyes work pretty similar to yours. Light is focused by a crystalline lens onto the retina. Like most fishes, I actually have really good color vision – that comes in handy when you’re really colorful like me. These bright colors can mean different things. My bright yellow coloring shows that I’m a dominant male defending a territory. Some of my friends are bright blue instead of yellow, but they’re also guarding a territory. Sometimes I have a dark bar across my eye. This is a sign of aggression, but sometimes it just means I’m stressed. I can also turn on and off a red patch on my body that I use during reproduction. I can hear sounds too! Even though I don’t have an external ear that you can see, I have an inner e...

Hi there! My name is Burt. I’m an African cichlid fish – Astatotilapia burtoni. It’s nice to meet you! You may not know this, but fish are kinda awesome. I decided to start a blog to talk about how great we are and tell you some cool biology facts about us. My friend Toni may occasionally help out too! Here’s a picture of us at the recent #SwimForScience event. First, let me tell you a little about myself. Although I was raised in the Maruska lab in good ole Baton Rouge, LA, my ancestors are originally from Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. Back in the 1970s a group of researchers realized how awesome we were and decided to study us. Gradually my family spread out around the world. Now, some of us live in Austin, TX , Palo Alto, CA , Portland, OR , Baton Rouge, LA , College Park, MD , New York, NY , and even Europe! Using my family, researchers over the past 40 years have discovered some pretty cool stuff about fish sensory systems and how fish brains function during behaviors. Keep c...