Fish Communicates In A Form Of Urination, Study Reveals

A cichlid fish communicates in a form of urination based on the study conducted by researchers. With this, some said that fish literally have pissing contests.

Fox News reports that the study was titled To pee or not to pee: urine signals mediate aggressive interactions in the cooperatively breeding cichlid. The findings of the discovery were published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. The study was led by researchers at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

In the study, the researchers put a partition in the middle of a fish tank. This inhibited the fish on either side from interacting physically with one another. The partition, which some were opaque and others were transparent, had tiny holes to allow the water to pass between the sides, while in the other it did not.

The team also injected the fish with a blue dye so that they could see and measure the urine being ousted by the fish once in the tank under different situations. These situations include one fish was in the tank, two fish in which they could not see each other and two fish in which they could see each other but were or were not able to communicate through urine in the barrier. The team used to fish with various sizes and examined their behaviors.

The results showed that when two fish saw one another in the tank, they inflated their fins and approached each other aggressively. Furthermore, they both expelled more urine than when they were not able to see another fish.

The team also discovered that when the urine passed into the barrier, there was a change in the behavior of the fish. On the other hand, when the urine was not able to pass the barrier and they do not see one another, both expelled more urine than in any other situation. This means they are aware that their message was not received, according to Phys.org.