18.7.2002
Israel Fried
The Colors of the Fishes in the Red Sea
Introduction
This article is prepared for my INTERNET site. In this article I explain some of the special features of the fishes in the
Red Sea. The reason is that a photographer has donated nice pictures of fishes from the nice coral reef near Eilat, the southern
city of Israel. Some of the pictures will be given in this site with the physical explanation as to their shapes and colors.
According to the new theory BioColorPhysics, the shapes and colors of animals and plants are determined by the first important
needs of each biological item, and by the way the body of that item is constructed for achieving those needs. Biological
items that their first important needs are unusual, may have unusual shapes and colors. The fishes in coral reefs are good
example to this principle. There is no doubt that their shapes and colors are changed so much than the fishes of the open
seas. The corals themselves are unusual livings of the sea. They grow close to the beach in warm water of tropical zones.
There is a lot to discuss about their physical properties with accordance to their colors. I will not discuss this subject
here. I may only note here that the pronouncing Red color of many of the living corals (to distinguish from the dead white-gray
corals) is a good example to the physical properties "Bending Elasticity" and "Heat Expansion" that I am corresponding
with Red color. See Table 1 in the pages regarding the general theory BioColorPhysics of this site.
There is a vast rule in Nature: If there is something to eat, there will be someone that will eat this. The corals are not
exceptional to that rule. During the Evolution there were developed special animals that each of the lives on specific parts
of the corals. Since the corals behave in vary different way that most living in the sea, by the fact that their lower parts
are connected constantly to the rock, like plants, but their upper parts have autonomy motions, i.e. unpredictable motions,
from the point of view of the other animals in the surrounding. Thus, in their upper parts, the corals behave like animals
and not like plants. Those special features of the corals imply unusual physical characteristics of the animals that were
developed on coral diet. This, in general, explains to me why the animals, that the corals are their habitat, have so many
unusual shapes and colors. It is remarkable to note that most of those animals are with colors that hint about the Mechanical
properties connecting directly or indirectly to Elasticity. The Red color hints about the "Bending Elasticity". The Blue
color hints about "Torsion Elasticity". The Yellow color hints about "Shearing Stiffness", which is an important condition
for the ability of those kinds of Elasticity. The White color hints about "Crush Elasticity", which eventually includes all
the former three properties. The Green color is taken here as a combination 50-50% of Yellow and Blue. Therefore, the Mechanical
properties of Green color are half "Torsion Elasticity" plus half "Shearing Stiffness". The color Crimson is taken here as
a 50-50% combination of Red and Blue. Therefore the Mechanical Properties of Crimson Color is half "Bending Elasticity" plus
half "Torsion Elasticity". The color Orange is taken here as a 50-50% combination of Red and Yellow. Therefore the Mechanical
properties of Orange are half "Bending Elasticity" plus half "Shearing Stiffness". All these colors appear widely in the
animals that their habitat is the coral reef. The high level of flexibility that is required from many of those animals in
that surrounding implies these colors: Blue, Yellow, Red, White, Orange, Crimson, and combinations of these.
The Black color, however, that hints about the Mechanical property "Tension Stiffness", is less common in the fishes of the
Coral reef. But it is vary common in the fishes of the open sea. Hunting in the open sea may require higher velocities when
hunting smaller animals, or higher strength against stronger streams when eating vegetables. All these may imply greater tensions
on the skin. Overcoming those tensions, in the open sea, is much more important than high level of maneuverability, which
is of most importance while foraging for food in-between the coral branches.
When we see in a coral reef a black color, and compositions of colors with Black, it comes mostly from quiet slow animals,
such as sea-urchins with black thorns, that need the property "Tension Stiffness" for particular reasons.
In the next pages I will give physical explanations to several fishes that their habitat is the coral reef in the Red Sea
near Eilat. The first is: the Masked Butterflyfish
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