Sep 1, 2023 - News

Critter Corner: How hogfish choose their color

Deirdra Funcheon

Hogfish change to a reddish brown color. Photo: Wild Horizons/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Hogfish, which are common off the coast of Florida, change color to hide from predators.

What's happening: Florida International University (FIU) marine scientist Heather Bracken-Grissom contributed to a study about how they do it, published last week in Nature Communications journal.

Details: Inside certain hogfish cells, pigments either spread out or cluster together to make the fish appear dark or light, per an FIU publication.

Beneath every color-changing cell in the hogfish is a corresponding photoreceptor providing feedback to make sure the fish changes to the correct color.

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Critter Corner: How hogfish choose their color

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