How does the Japanese rice fish see?
The Japanese rice fish (Oryzias latipes) is a fish in the order Beloniformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shallow-water fish tetrachromat.
Measured in this species: colour, sharpness and motion (flicker fusion). Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has 7 colour receptor classes, including ultraviolet; people have 3.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.563 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- Both eyes see the same 32.85° in front of it (binocular overlap), where depth is judged best.
- It stops seeing flicker at 37.2 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[11][12]
- Activity pattern: diurnal.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 7 receptor classes: 356 nm (UVS), 405 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 439 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 452 nm (SWS (blue)), 493 nm (MWS (green)), 516 nm (MWS (green)), 562 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured | [1][2][3] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Measured | ||
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.563 cycles per degree median of 1 behavioural rows (method priority rule); acuity_cpd: larval/juvenile rows (adult rows used) set aside (labelled alternative: 1.0) | Measured | [4] |
| Field of view | Binocular overlap 32.85° group default: median of tier-A values in vision type V18 within phylum Chordata (2 species: Danio rerio, Notemigonus crysoleucas) | Group default | [5] |
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 group default: mode of tier-A values in vision type V18 within phylum Chordata (2 species: Toxotes jaculatrix, Anableps anableps) | Group default | [6][7] |
| Fovea type ventrotemporal area (high rgc density) | Group default | [6][7] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal group default: mode of tier-A values in vision type V18 within phylum Chordata (224 species: Amphiprion ocellaris, Acanthochromis polyacanthus, Acanthurus bahianus, Acanthurus chirurgus, Acanthurus coeruleus… | Group default | [8][9] |
| Rods vs cones cone-dominated | Group default | [8][9] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 37.2 Hz median of 1 rows (no bright-light flag) (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [37.2]); cff_hz: only larval/juvenile rows exist (larval value used as a labelled fallback) | Measured | [10] |
Related animals
- Celebes medaka same vision type
- Dwarf medaka same vision type
- Garfish same vision type
- Pacific saury same vision type
- Wrestling halfbeak same vision type
- Zebrafish same vision type
More fish: all fish with measured vision data.
Sources
- Frazer SA, Baghalian M, et al. 2024. Discovering genotype-phenotype relationships with machine learning and the Visual Physiology Opsin Database (VPOD). GigaScience 13:giae073; VPOD v1.3 data release. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19051998
- Into the blue: Gene duplication and loss underlie color vision adaptations in a deep-sea chimaera, the elephant sharkCallorhinchus milii (2009)
- Laver C, Taylor J (2011) RT-qPCR reveals opsin gene upregulation associated with age and sex in guppies (Poecilia reticulata) - a species with color-based sexual selection and 11 visual-opsin genes. BMC Evolutionary Biology
- Caves EM, Sutton TT, Johnsen S (2017) Visual acuity in ray-finned fishes correlates with eye size and habitat. J Exp Biol 220:1586-1596. Table S1.. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.151183
- Pita D, Moore BA, Tyrrell LP, Fernandez-Juricic E. 2015. Vision in two cyprinid fish: implications for collective behavior. PeerJ 3:e1113.. doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1113
- species_v1:Schwab et al. 2001
- species_v1:Temple et al. 2010
- Froese R. & Pauly D. (eds). FishBase, snapshot v25.04 (morphmet, morphdat, species, families tables), distributed as parquet by C. Boettiger for rfishbase.. fishbase.org
- Moura et al. 2024. A phylogeny-informed characterisation of global tetrapod traits addresses data gaps and biases. PLoS Biol 22:e3002658. TetrapodTraits v3.0.1.. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22536349
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?