page_title: Fish coloration
section_title: Mimicry
hierarchical_section_title: Fish coloration / Evolutionary function / Mimicry
caption_attribution_description: English: Centrogenys vaigiensis
context_page_description: Fish coloration, a subset of animal coloration, is extremely diverse. Fish across all taxa vary greatly in their coloration through special mechanisms, mainly pigment cells called chromatophores. Fish can have any colors of the visual spectrum on their skin, evolutionarily derived for many reasons. There are three factors to coloration, brightness, hue, and saturation. Fish coloration has three proposed functions: thermoregulation, intraspecific communication, and interspecific communication. Fishes' diverse coloration is possibly derivative of the fact that "fish most likely see colors very differently than humans".
context_section_description: Mimicry is defined as an animal resembling a different animal that is avoided or not commonly preyed upon and is thus conspicuous. There are two types of mimicry: Mullerian mimicry and Batesian mimicry. An example of Batesian mimicry in fishes are the Centrogeniidae (false scorpionfishes), that resemble the Scorpaenidae (scorpionfishes). Another example of Batesian mimicry is the ringed snake eel (Myrichthys colubrinus) that mimics the venomous sea snake Laticauda colubrina. An example of Mullerian mimicry is in saber-toothed blennies. The Meiacanthus atrodorsalis and the Plagiotremus laudandus, both venomous, resemble each other and the Meiacanthus oualanensis and the Plagiotremus laudandus flavus, also both venomous, resemble each other.
caption: Ex. of Batesian mimicry in false scorpionfish (Centrogenys vaigiensis).
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