What colors do you wear?
- Friendly Fins
- Dec 21, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 7
What Colors Tell Us Underwater
In our everyday life, we are always surrounded by colors: neon signs, street signs, clothing, food, everything through color transmits an emotion and a message to us. Imagine now diving into that blue sea, which at first glance really seems only blue, giving our eyes time to get used to it and immediately a perfect watercolor of harmonious colors called coral reef appears before us.
The first thing that catches our eye when we see it is precisely this infinity of colors, but what do they want to tell us?
At the moment we have only understood a small part of what colors actually transmit, especially because we cannot identify many of them since they are in the ultraviolet spectrum, but we can be satisfied and what has been discovered is already something incredible!
We see
The flashy colors
Having a bright color in nature can mean several things: first of all, it can highlight the dangerousness of the animal that carries it and in this case, we will be dealing with a mimicry called aposematic:
“I am very flashy because I am dangerous and I fear no one! Stay away from me”
This sentence will surely be thought by nudibranchs, which are nothing more than molluscs of a few cm, in most cases, and super colorful! Thanks to their incredible variety of colors they are among the most famous photographic models of all the seas of the world!
But how can they be dangerous? Most of them feed on coral polyps, which have stinging cells called cnidocytes inside them. These cells are stored by nudibranchs on the surface of their bodies or on special organs called cerata that are located on the upper part of their bodies. This makes them a particularly spicy snack, so their color warns potential predators to be cautious!
The colors that distract
In the marine environment there are a large number of animals that have developed truly remarkable and sophisticated deception techniques,
But why would they deceive anyone? Simple to escape or hunt!
There are a thousand examples of animals that are able to camouflage themselves and use colors in a truly excellent way but today I would like to talk to you about some fish from a specific family, capable of being clever deceivers and magnificent living watercolors: butterfly fish.
These fish clearly owe their name to the call of the bright colors of butterflies but above all to a singular "accessory" that they share: the ocellus or fake eye.
What is it for? Precisely to deceive the predator and confuse him about the true position of the fish's head!
The fake eye is often positioned towards the tail and much more evident than the real eye, in this way, the predator expects the fish to run away in one direction when instead it will go completely in the opposite direction!
Some butterfly fish are also so clever that they have also developed the ability to swim backwards to be even more deceitful!
The pacifist colors
Angelfish
After the butterfly fish, the most colorful family of fish in the coral reef is certainly that of the angel fish. Easily recognizable by their shape and their singular snout with this pointed mouth, they are extremely territorial fish, they live alone or in pairs but always in the same square meters of coral reef and do not even think of going to disturb them!
Angelfish have developed truly unique liveries, almost hypnotic with lines, bands and spots that do not allow you to perfectly define their shape in the midst of the "coral decor" of the reef. However, this is not enough and in fact they are also famous for their incredible ingenuity: the juveniles are colored completely differently from the adults to avoid clashes for dominance of the territory. With this effective trick they manage to coexist without rivers of blood flowing and sharing the same spaces!
The Colors of Love
The parrot fish
Even in some fish, such as birds, males tend to be more showy than females, they wear very bright colors to attract attention to possible new girlfriends and compared to them, we must admit, they are much more beautiful! Furthermore, the difference in coloration also occurs between juveniles and adults, this allows for easy recognition between them: the young are often dark brown and opaque, as they grow or take on the appearance of females and maintain this range of color, or becoming adult males who will develop very bright colors in shades of blue with orange, purple, yellow, pink nuances which is precisely what their name refers to: parrot fish!
Even more incredible is the story of the wrasses, among the most ingenious and diverse fish of the coral reef, these have the supreme power to change sex during their life and therefore also color! As in parrot fish there is a clear distinction between males and females, respectively with very bright and vivid colors and colors instead more opaque and dull. At a certain moment in their life or having reached a specific length, these fish change sex passing from female to male. This also involves the change of livery that becomes sparkling and ready to make massacres of hearts.
If you think about it, these fish must have remarkable self-control and a very elastic identity!
These are just a few examples of the colors you can find in the sea! Each animal has its own communication system and color is an integral part of this complex mechanism! Color often helps us understand their mood at that moment… But that’s another story Friendly Fins!
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