If only your fish could talk... Well, using this new device, some of them can!
Ever wished that your fish could talk? Are you convinced they are trying to tell you something important? Are they really hungry or do they want a water change? Are the Tiger barbs being bullies again?
Well, a new device called the Gymno'com from French pet product company Gymnokidi claims to allow just this – providing the fish are Peter's elephant-nose fish (Gnathonemus petersii), Black ghost knifefish (Apteronotus albifrons) or other weakly electrical knifefish species.
The Gymno'com takes the form of a 'bridge' which you place in the aquarium that intercepts the fishes' electrical emissions and transmits them to a snail shell-shaped external box.
Received information is then either broadcast as a voice or visually via a small LCD screen on the shell's side.
The system also comes with a web cam so you can keep an eye on your fish wherever you are and is said to be able to so far 'translate' more than 30 messages from these apparently talkative fish, based on their moods, levels of excitement, hunger or distress (linked to the water quality).
The Gymno'com also acts as a monitor for pH, conductivity, temperature and light levels and is Wi-Fi enabled and smartphone compatible, so it can send you updates wherever you are, meaning you can monitor you fish while at work or even on holiday.
The product is the result of several years of research including studies of behaviour in the wild to try and understand the electrical language of these fascinating fish.
No release date has been set as yet but the product will be exhibited this autumn in Paris at Animal Expo 2011, France's largest pet exhibition.
It is expected to retail at around £265.
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