How does the sea stickleback see?
The sea stickleback (Spinachia spinachia) is a fish in the order Gasterosteiformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shallow-water fish tetrachromat.
Measured in this species: colour. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has 4 colour receptor classes; people have 3.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 6 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 67 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 1.1 times slower to it.[13][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 4 receptor classes: 445 nm (SWS (blue)), 532 nm (MWS (green)), 555 nm (LWS (long)), 590 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured | [1][2] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 6 cycles per degree group default: median of tier-A values in vision type V18 within phylum Chordata (178 species: Carassius auratus, Danio rerio, Poecilia reticulata, Oncorhynchus mykiss, Rhinecanthus aculeatus, Toxotes jaculatrix) | Group default | [3][4][5][6] |
| 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 | [7] |
| 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 | [8][9] |
| Fovea type ventrotemporal area (high rgc density) | Group default | [8][9] | |
| 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 | [10][11] |
| Rods vs cones cone-dominated | Group default | [10][11] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 67 Hz median of 1 relatives in family Gasterosteidae: Gasterosteus aculeatus | Estimated | [12] |
Related animals
- Three-spined stickleback same vision type
- Ninespine stickleback same vision type
- Tube-snout same vision type
- Zebrafish same vision type
- Goldfish same vision type
- Picasso triggerfish same vision type
More fish: all fish with measured vision data.
Sources
- Schweikert LE, Fitak RR, Caves EM, Sutton TT, Johnsen S. 2018. Spectral sensitivity in ray-finned fishes: diversity, ecology and shared descent. J Exp Biol 221:jeb189761. Table S1. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.189761
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- 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
- Caves EM, Sutton TT, Warrant EJ, Johnsen S 2023. Measures and models of visual acuity in epipelagic and mesopelagic teleosts and elasmobranchs. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. zenodo.org/records/8251016
- Caves EM, Fernandez-Juricic E, Kelley LA (2024) Ecological and morphological correlates of visual acuity in birds. J Exp Biol 227(2): jeb246063. Supplementary Table S1.. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.246063
- Stieb SM, de Busserolles F, Carleton KL, et al. (2019) A detailed investigation of the visual system and visual ecology of the Barrier Reef anemonefish, Amphiprion akindynos. Sci Rep 9:16459
- 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
- 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
- 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
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?