Fish Senses

Submitted to: Mam Maria Latif

Presented by: Ayesha Saghir
2019S-mulmsc-zlogy-001
 Fish
O Fish are gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals
that lack limbs with digits.
O They form a sister group to tunicates, together
forming the olfactores.
O Cold-Blooded
O Fins for movement
O Swim Bladders
 Senses
O The ability to convey specific types of
external or internal stimuli to the brain and
perceive them.
O Transduction
O Stimuli are converted to nerve impulses which
are relayed to the brain.
 Types
1. Hearing
2. Sight
3. Smell
4. Taste
5. Touch
 Do Fish have senses???
O Fish have the five senses that people have, but
have a sixth sense that is more than a sense of
touch.
O Lateral line
O Hearing and feeling sense work together.
 Fish may be
cold-blooded, but
they’re not
insensitive.
 Sight
O Vision is an important sensory system for most species of
fish.
O The eyes of a fish are not much different than that of a
human.
O However, they lack true eyelids.
O Because their eyes are under the water at all times.
O Have more spherical lens
O Adjust focus by moving the lens closer to or further from
the retina.
O Contains both rods and cons.
O Some have better vision
O Some can only differentiate between light and
dark
O Some can see in colour
O Some can also see UV
O Lampreys have well developed eyes
O Hagfish has only primitive eyespots.
Cuatro ojos
 Hearing
O Sound is an important characteristic for fish in
aquatic environment.
O Fish hear, but their “ears” are on the inside.
O Most fishes have sensory receptors that form
the lateral line system, which detect gentle
currents and vibrations, and senses the motion
of nearby fish and prey.
O Bony fishes detect vibrations through their
“ear stones” called otoliths.
O Sharks can sense frequencies in the range of 25
to 50 Hz through their lateral line.
O Well developed in Carp
O Weberian organ
O Balance sensors
O Without swim bladders are sensitive to particle
motion component of sound
O With swim bladder, increased hearing
sensitivity.
 Touch
O Like us, fish are able to feel the environment around
them.
O Fish use their pectoral fins in the same way as human
use their fingertips.
O Touch sensation allow fish to live in a dim
environment, using touch to navigate when vision is
limited.
O Sometimes referred to as the “sense of distant touch”,
lateral lines convert subtle changes in water pressure
into electrical pulses similar to the way our inner ear
responds to sound waves.
O Fish have nerve endings on the surface of their
body that allow them to feel their
surroundings.
O Catfish, with their scale-free skin and barbly
chins, are particularly adept at feeling their
way through the water.
 Taste
O Along with tactile nerve endings on the
surfaces of their bodies, fins and mouths, most
fish species have the ability to taste through
their skin and lips.
O Sharks and trouts
O Catfish have been called “swimming tongues”
O Skin is coated with taste buds.
O Helps them find food in murky bottom waters.
 Smell
O Adult salmonids locate their home streams for
spawning by following distinctive scent trails
remembered from their youth.
O Odour trails are paved with bile acids, amino
acids, and possibly even components of the
home stream itself, like calcium
O Nares
 Electroreception
O The ability to detect electric fields
O Sturgeon and other fish respond to electric
currents
O Receptors of the electrical sense are modified
hair cells of the lateral line system.
 References
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish
2. https://www.medicinenet.com/sense/definition.htm
3. https://tpwd.texas.gov/kids/wild_things/fish/howdofish
hear.phtml
4. https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/biological
-sciences-articles/hooked-on-a-feeling-new-study-finds
-fish-fins-can-sense-touch