[neilep (OP)]

Dearest TNS Peeps Of Wonder & Awe,

As a sheepy I am used to being herded about my field at the most inopportune moments. One minute I'm at one end of the field then the next minute a whole bunch of us are running around together all over the place, It can be really annoying actually ! !

Look, here I am on a recent holiday. I am scuba diving !..good photo eh ?


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Me Genuinely Swimming !!


If ewe could avert your eyes from me (just for a second..I know it's hard !)

Notice the school of fish. They are all those shiny fish things !!

How do they manage to all turn at the same time ?

Even when they are not being harassed by scuba diving sheep they still manage to flock together !...how's that then ?


I would like to know because I'm having fishy fingers for tea tonight with the kids and we always like to play and I just know that at some point all our fishy fingers will synchronise...If I can be armed with this valuable knowledge then I can make them think that daddy is well klevur !


Thank ewe for your kind consideration in this matter

Hugs & Shmishes





Neil
Many Degrees In A School Of Fish !
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[Nizzle]

Fish have a sense called the "Lateral Line" with which they detect movement and vibration in the water around them.
I'm pretty sure that has something to do with it.
Check out the Wiki in the link...

[RD]

The apparently choreographed motions of a shoal of fish, or flock of birds, are emergent behaviours.

[neilep (OP)]

Fish have a sense called the "Lateral Line" with which they detect movement and vibration in the water around them.
I'm pretty sure that has something to do with it.
Check out the Wiki in the link...

Woo !!..that is great..Thanks Nizzle...so it seems they have evolved this ' lateral line' specifically for schooling.....It's akin to asking the chicken/egg thingy...which came first the lateral line or the school ?

I wonder if tests have been done (humanely of course !..on de-lateral lined fisheys !!...they'd be all over the place ...lol !

[neilep (OP)]

The apparently choreographed motions of a shoal of fish, or flock of birds, are emergent behaviours.

Coo !...I wonder if the lateral line developed in concert with this emergent behaviour. Ta RD

[Tigerkix]

Hmmm I wonder why fish swim into a ball when they are going to get eaten.
wouldn't it make more sense to all swim away at once?

[Karen W.]

You should take your act to broadway.. I think a fishy finger chorus line might just Kick ....! LOL
The biggest thing on broadway since "CATS!"

[LeeE]

Fish form schools for the same reason that birds form flocks: it makes it more difficult for predators to single out and track a single target.

The only time this tactic really fails is when the fish, or more commonly whales, can take such large mouthfuls that identifying a single target isn't necessary, re the comment in another thread about the footage of a sei whale gulping down an entire bait-ball of small fish in one mouthful.  The mouths of the fish that most typically feed on the smaller fish that form defensive schools, or bait-balls, are too small to allow them to simply swim into a school of fish and expect to catch something, so they must identify a single specific fish to attack.