Unraveling the Mystery: How this See-Through Fish Gets its Rainbow Shimmer

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From Thailand comes a little fish so clear, you can almost see right through it. When the light hits it just right, its body bursts into rainbow colors! Scientists have now figured out how this amazing Ghost Catfish creates such beautiful iridescent glow.

A recent study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that the glow from ghost catfish is emanating from its muscle tissue. Light coming through the fish’s skin gets absorbed by tiny structures, causing it to appear colorful when seen with the eyes.

The ghost catfish is a small species of fish native to rivers in Thailand; they are around just a few inches long and they are commonly kept as pets in aquariums worldwide.

Some living things sparkle and shine in the light. When you move around them, their colors seem to shift and change. This is because they have shiny parts like feathers or wings which make them look colorful. It’s called being iridescent. A biologist from Arizona State University named Ron Rutowski said this about it, even though he wasn’t involved in the research.

Qibin Zhao, a physicist from China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University, saw a special type of fish in an aquarium store that does not have any scales. After doing experiments in the lab by shining lights and lasers on its body, he found out that the fish has tightly packed structures in its muscles that make it bend light into different rainbow colors. Whenever this “ghost catfish” moves or swims, it changes the hue of these colors as its muscles tighten and relax.

The skin of the ghost catfish is very thin and lets in 90% of light. This is important because we can see its unique colors. Some fish use their colorful appearance to attract a mate or signal danger, but it’s not certain why this type of fish has these beautiful shades.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department gets help from a group called the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. But, the Associated Press is only responsible for all of the content it makes.