How does the luminous cardinalfish see?
The luminous cardinalfish (Rhabdamia gracilis) is a fish in the order Perciformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shallow-water fish tetrachromat.
Measured in this species: colour. Measured colour or sharpness: a measured receptor set or acuity in this species; other dials come from relatives or group defaults. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
See your photo as the luminous cardinalfishThis species is part of the full catalogue in the tool (full unlock). Your photo stays on your device.
What stands out
- It has 4 colour receptor classes; people have 3.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 4.2 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- Both eyes see the same 32.85° in front of it (binocular overlap), where depth is judged best.
- It stops seeing flicker at 41.7 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks choppier to it.[7][8]
- Activity pattern: cathemeral.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 4 receptor classes: 420 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 485 nm (MWS (green)), 500 nm (MWS (green)), 520 nm (MWS (green)) measured in this species | Measured | [1] |
| Sharpness | Acuity 4.2 cycles per degree median of 1 relatives in family Apogonidae: Jaydia lineata | Estimated | [2] |
| Field of view | Binocular overlap 32.85° group default: median of tier-A values in vision type V18 within phylum Chordata (2 species: Danio rerio, Notemigonus crysoleucas) | Group default | [3] |
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 mode of species-v1 relatives in order Perciformes: Toxotes jaculatrix | Group default | [4] |
| Fovea type ventrotemporal area (high rgc density) | Group default | [4] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern cathemeral mode of 1 relatives in family Apogonidae: Ostorhinchus notatus | Estimated | [5] |
| Rods vs cones mixed | Estimated | [5] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 41.7 Hz median of 1 relatives in family Apogonidae: Ostorhinchus compressus | Estimated | [6] |
Related animals
- Banded archerfish same vision type
- Yellowfin tuna same vision type
- Ambon damelfish same vision type
- American yellow perch same vision type
- Atlantic spadefish same vision type
- Barrier reef anemonefish same vision type
More fish: all fish with measured vision data.
Sources
- VPOD in-vivo (MSP / single-cell) lambda max compendium, file scp_cleaned.csv, VPOD GitHub (Frazer et al. 2025 bioRxiv 10.1101/2025.08.22.671864). github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db/tree/main/scripts_n_notebooks/vpod_ML_workflows/mine_n_match/data_sources/lmax/vpod
- Caves EM, Sutton TT, Johnsen S (2017) Visual acuity in ray-finned fishes correlates with eye size and habitat. J Exp Biol 220:1586-1596. Table S1.. doi.org/10.1242/jeb.151183
- Pita D, Moore BA, Tyrrell LP, Fernandez-Juricic E. 2015. Vision in two cyprinid fish: implications for collective behavior. PeerJ 3:e1113.. doi.org/10.7717/peerj.1113
- species_v1:Temple et al. 2010
- Froese R. & Pauly D. (eds). FishBase, snapshot v25.04 (morphmet, morphdat, species, families tables), distributed as parquet by C. Boettiger for rfishbase.. fishbase.org
- Fogg LG, Chung W-S, Marshall NJ, Cortesi F, de Busserolles F. 2023. Multiple rod layers increase the speed and sensitivity of vision in nocturnal reef fishes. Proc R Soc B 290 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.1749). Data: Dryad doi:10.5061/dryad.280gb5mtf, mirrored on Zenodo 7636493. doi.org/10.5061/dryad.280gb5mtf
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?