Anableps, or four-eyed fish
Anableps, or four-eyed fish
Anableps anableps
Max. size: 30 cm
Geographical distribution:
The four-eyed fish is common in Central and Southern America and lives in the mangroves. Mangrove is the name given to a form of vegetation characteristic of the tropical coasts, where these strange trees of the same name grow, their trunks raised up on roots that plunge into the brackish water.
Biology:
This fish has a flat head with bulging eye lobes. Two precautions are better than one. As its eyes are divided horizontally into two sections by a septum, the four-eyed fish can see as well above water as below it. It can therefore watch out for both prey and predators.
These animals have another quite rare characteristic, which is that their reproductive organs are either on the right or the left side. Mating is therefore not so simple: a male with its gonapod on the right cannot fertilise a female who has her genital orifice on the left and vice-versa. Once the ‘right-sided’ male has found a ‘left-sided’ female, they can then give birth to adorable little four-eyed fish only 2.5 cm long!
