By Susan Milius
Biology has met home-decorating TV.
In spring, some male fish build nests of algae where females visit and occasionally deposit eggs. In the wild, a nest’s murky mass looks to human eyes as if it would be perfect for camouflaging the eggs. Yet, when scientists offered some males bits of shiny foil, the fish went wild, taking home the bright strips and placing them around the entrance to the nests. Even though the strips hardly looked like camouflage, the fish were making a canny decorating choice, researchers report in the March Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. In tests, females preferred the gaudy nests.