This Fish’s Eyes Turn Black When It Gets Mad
Guppies have silver eyes, but when they’re ready for a fight, their irises go dark. An experiment with robots shows why.
When Robert Heathcote dips his head into the rivers of Trinidad, he’ll often see little black dots moving through the water, even when it’s murky. Those dots are the eyes of small, inch-long fish called guppies. And those guppies are angry.
are among the most popular aquarium fish in the world, but they originally hail from the Caribbean. In Trinidad, , which separate them from predators. In these safe havens, guppies flourish in such numbers that they compete intensely for food. They’ll guard any fruit that drops from overhanging trees with a ferocity that belies
