Sensory system in fish

Submitted to: Dr. Maria Latif

INTRODUCTION:

• Most fish possess highly developed sense organs. Nearly all daylight fish
have color vision that is at least as good as a human's (see vision in fishes).
• Many fish also have chemoreceptors that are responsible for extraordinary
senses of taste and smell. Although they have ears, many fish may not hear
very well.
• Most fish have sensitive receptors that form the lateral line system, which
detects gentle currents and vibrations, and senses the motion of nearby fish
and prey.
• Sharks can sense frequencies in the range of 25 to 50 Hz through their lateral
line.
 VISION
• Vision is an important sensory system for most species of fish.

• Fish eyes are similar to those of terrestrial vertebrates like birds and mammals, but
have a more spherical lens. Their retinas generally have both rod cells and cone cells,
and most species have colour vision.

• Some fish can see ultraviolet and some can see polarized light.

• Amongst jawless fish, the lamprey has well-developed eyes, while the hagfish has
only primitive eyespots.

• Fish vision shows adaptation to their visual environment, for example deep sea fishes
have eyes suited to the dark environment.
VISION
 HEARING
• Hearing is an important sensory system for most species of fish.

• Hearing threshold and the ability to localize sound sources are reduced underwater, in
which the speed of sound is faster than in air.

• As such, aquatic animals such as fish have a more specialized hearing apparatus that is
effective underwater.

• Fish can sense sound through their lateral lines and their otoliths (ears). Some fishes, such
as some species of carp and herring, hear through their swim bladders, which function
rather like a hearing aid.
 Current detection:
The lateral line in fish and aquatic forms of amphibians is a detection system of water
currents, consisting mostly of vortices.

The lateral line is also sensitive to low-frequency vibrations.

The mechanoreceptors are hair cells, the same mechanoreceptors for vestibular sense
and hearing.

Hair cells in fish are used to detect water movements around their bodies.

The hair cells therefore can not be seen and do not appear on the surface of skin. The
receptors of the electrical sense are modified hair cells of the lateral line system.
Lateral line
 • Chemoreception(smelling)

• The aquatic equivalent to smelling in air is tasting in water.

• Many larger catfish have chemoreceptors across their entire bodies, which means they
"taste" anything they touch and "smell" any chemicals in the water

• . "In catfish, gustation plays a primary role in the orientation and location of food“

• Sharks have keen olfactory senses, located in the short duct (which is not fused, unlike
bony fish) between the anterior and posterior nasal openings, with some species able to
detect as little as one part per million of blood in seawater.
Hammerhead shark
 Electroreception

• Electroreception, or electroception, is the ability to detect electric fields or

currents.

• Some fish, such as catfish and sharks, have organs that detect weak electric
potentials on the order of millivolts.

• Other fish, like the South American electric fishes Gymnotiformes, can produce
weak electric currents, which they use in navigation and social communication.