You probably know Nemo, the orange and white clownfish (Amphiprion percula) hero of the movie "Finding Nemo" and his friend Dory, a blue and yellow surgeonfish (Paracanthurus hepatus). These fish species do actually live in coral reefs and are sought after for their beauty. It is this beauty that ecology researchers have been interested in. These researchers wondered whether the fish that humans appreciate the most and find the most beautiful were as useful to the coral reef ecosystem, as the ugly fishes that humans less appreciate. How did these researchers first determine which fish people found beautiful? They conducted an online survey with photos of tropical fish. Each page had two photos and the survey participant had to click on the most beautiful fish. Eight thousand people did the online test, with 20 different comparisons each. A total of 116 fish species were ranked from the ugliest to the most beautiful, according to the number of votes received from the survey.

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Go to source: https://kids.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frym.2020.00013