Bioluminescent catfish

[Mike_Noren]

Just thought you guys might be interested to hear that Heiko Bleher has just reported finding a trichomycterid (looks like a Parastegophilus to me?) with bioluminescent organs along the flanks; it's the first bioluminescent catfish I've ever heard about, and if the luminescent organs are the bright rectangles in the photo I'm not altogether convinced he's not confusing luminescent with fluorescent. Then again, he's infinitely more knowledgeable about catfish in general and trichomycterids in particular than me.

He's posted a photo of the fish to his facebook page. I'd love to hear what you guys who are knowledgeable about catfish think.

I'm not quite sure how to link to facebook, so here's a couple of tries. The photo is here. Here's Heiko's facebook page.

[wrasse]

To prove it, he should produce a photo of the fish in the dark... yes?

[Viktor Jarikov]

I'd think so - that would prove the source of light - bio chemically generated or generated by incident light. IMHO, either one can be fluorescence or phosphorescence - these words define how the light is emitted but not how the electronically excited state that emits that light was obtained in the first place. What matters is the source of excitation - chemical reaction or external light. Luminescence is "cold" light emission, as opposed to the black body radiation. Luminescence is more general than fluorescence and phosphorescence, which are types of luminescence. That's in physical chemistry. These terms may be used differently in the field of bio/organic/luminescence/reflection/etc. I would not know.