Oh well,
John
Christopher Scharpf wrote:
>>Is it fairly common for a wounded cyprinid to release something alerting the
>>rest of the school?
>>
>>If so, is that only true of North American cyprinids as opposed to European,
>>S.E. Asian or African cyprinids or do cyprinids world wide do that??
>>
>>
>
>
>Minnows belong to a large and disparate superorder of fishes called
>Ostariophysi, which also includes suckers, loaches, catfishes, characins,
>knifefishes, and the electric eel, among others. One ostariophysan trait is
>the ability to produce a chemical substance called Schreckstoff (from the
>German words for fright and stuff). When an ostariophysan fish is bitten by
>a predator, special skin cells release Schreckstoff into the water. This
>sends a message to schoolmates and other closely related species to take a
>variety of escape actions.
>
>Some ostariophysan fishes have lost their ability to produce Schreckstoff
>for adaptive reasons. For example, piranhas do not release an alarm
>substance since many of their prey are ostariophysans, and it wouldn't make
>sense for them to flee each time they bit into a fish.
>
>
>Chris Scharpf
>Baltimore
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