The turbidity makes it harder for a male to prove he's a worthy mate by interfering with females' ability to distinguish subtle gradations of red or orange, Johnsen said. "For any poor fish that has beautiful red coloration on his body, now it's like, 'well, you're just going to have to take my word for it.'"
Other studies have shown that, for cichlid fish in Africa's Lake Victoria, where species rely on their distinctive colors to recognize their own kind, pollution can reduce water clarity to a point where they lose the ability to tell each other apart and start mating every which way.
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