Short Wave The secret behind clownfish stripes and more fishy fascinations
12 snips
May 4, 2026 
Ari Daniel, a science reporter covering biology and the natural world, shares three wild fish tales. A clownfish in the western Pacific loses stripes while growing up. In Congo, a chunky fish climbs a 50-foot rock wall. At Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, a tiny warty frogfish is raised through delicate early life stages.
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Why Tomato Clownfish Lose Their Stripes
- Young tomato clownfish lose extra white stripes only when they join a live anemone already occupied by adult clownfish.
- Lori found thyroid-linked gene-expression changes that kill white pigment cells, suggesting stripes help juveniles signal low status until they fit the anemone hierarchy.
African Fish That Climb Waterfalls
- Shell ears in the Democratic Republic of Congo climb a 50-foot waterfall with hook-like fin cells and fast side-to-side wriggling.
- Pacifique Kihwele Mutambala documented thousands doing a roughly 10-hour ascent, the first recorded case of waterfall-climbing fish in Africa.
How Shedd Raised A Tiny Warty Frogfish
- Shedd Aquarium staff raised warty frogfish larvae in captivity by constantly adjusting light, flow, temperature, and diet.
- Out of 500 larvae, only one survived to day 90 as a pea-sized juvenile named Domino, showing both the difficulty and conservation value of the work.