By Susan Milius
A lot of things can be said about a shirt that sports images of coral-reef fish, but “subtly colored” isn’t one of them. Oddly enough, that characterization does get used when biologists talk about the reef creatures. Although the fish may dazzle the human eye with scarlet, rose, yellow, turquoise, emerald, and dozens of other shades, some theorists have proposed that, in the complexity of a reef, the riot of fish colors serves as camouflage.
Then again, some scientists have suggested the opposite notion—that brilliant colors send big, bold messages that may be come-ons or warnings or both. People can theorize till the cowfish come home about what they see on a reef, but what matters is what fish see, and that’s been hard to determine.