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Early recognition and response to predator, heterospecific, and conspecific visual cues by multiple species of poeciliid fry

Early recognition and response to predator, heterospecific, and conspecific visual cues by... Recognition and response to cues from conspecific and heterospecific individuals is critical to survival and reproduction and therefore should be learned early in life. Young fry of two live-bearing fishes, Poecilia mexicana and Xiphophorus birchmanni, were exposed to visual cues of three different species in order to measure shoal tightening, an antipredator defence. Both species responded to a putative predator with shoal tightening, but response to a con- and hetero-specific poeciliid did not differ, though inter-fry distances became larger in the presence of both species compared to distances prior to exposure. There were also size-dependent effects on the pairwise distance between fry. These results suggest that fry are able to learn to distinguish among species based on visual cues alone at an early age, that A. mexicanus is perceived as a threat, but that adult poeciliids are likely not perceived as a predator by fry as some studies have posited. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Behaviour Brill

Early recognition and response to predator, heterospecific, and conspecific visual cues by multiple species of poeciliid fry

Culumber, Zachary W.
Behaviour , Volume 152 (11): 17 – Apr 1, 2015
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References (42)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0005-7959
eISSN
1568-539X
DOI
10.1163/1568539X-00003287
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Recognition and response to cues from conspecific and heterospecific individuals is critical to survival and reproduction and therefore should be learned early in life. Young fry of two live-bearing fishes, Poecilia mexicana and Xiphophorus birchmanni, were exposed to visual cues of three different species in order to measure shoal tightening, an antipredator defence. Both species responded to a putative predator with shoal tightening, but response to a con- and hetero-specific poeciliid did not differ, though inter-fry distances became larger in the presence of both species compared to distances prior to exposure. There were also size-dependent effects on the pairwise distance between fry. These results suggest that fry are able to learn to distinguish among species based on visual cues alone at an early age, that A. mexicanus is perceived as a threat, but that adult poeciliids are likely not perceived as a predator by fry as some studies have posited.

Journal

Behaviour – Brill

Published: Apr 1, 2015

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