How does the ochre-striped cardinalfish see?
The ochre-striped cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus compressus) is a fish in the order Perciformes. Its eyes belong to the vision type Shallow-water fish tetrachromat.
Measured in this species: motion (flicker fusion). One measured dial: a value other than colour or sharpness is measured in this species; colour and sharpness are not measured here. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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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: 453 nm (SWS (blue)), 468 nm (SWS (blue)), 506 nm (MWS (green)), 519 nm (MWS (green)) receptor set of nearest measured relative Ostorhinchus cookii (same genus Ostorhinchus) | Estimated | [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 genus Ostorhinchus: Ostorhinchus notatus | Estimated | [5] |
| Rods vs cones mixed | Estimated | [5] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 41.7 Hz median of 1 bright-light rows (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [13.0, 41.7]); cff_hz: dim-light rows (bright-light rows used) set aside (labelled alternative: 17.0, 38.3) | Measured | [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?