In the present work, 355 nm nanosecond pulsed laser is used to ablate zebrafish surface stripes to investigate the mechanism underlying formation and regeneration of pigment cells pattern. The experimental results show that zebrafish surface xanthophore clusters can only promote melanophore regeneration within the distance of half width of a stripe but not close to each other. Meanwhile, xanthophores significantly affect melanophore regeneration in a direction perpendicular to its stripe rather than parallel to its stripe, indicating the orientation specificity. The results can provide new experimental supports for understanding how zebrafish self-organize spatially periodic patterns.