HETEROSPECIFIC FAMILIARITY ON SHOALING PREFERENCES OF PUNTIUS SARANA SUBNASUTUS

摘要

The ability of fish to recognize and preferentially associate with familiar conspecifics has been well documented in a series of laboratory experiments. The present study investigated the influence of heterospecific familiarity and shoal size on sibling preferences of Puntius sarana subnasutus during selection of a particular shoal. The fish preferentially associated with sibling shoal than another larger shoal composed of unfamiliar, Anabas testudineus. However, Puntius sarana subnasutus reared along with Anabas testudineus from the day of hatching onwards preferred to shoal with Anabas testudineus depending on the group size of the shoal. When the stimulus shoals were equal in number, the test fish always selected the sibling-shoal regardless of their familiarity with the heterospcific Anabas testudineus stimulus shoal. But when the group-size of the latter increased, the test fish shifted their preference towards the larger, familiar heterospecific group. Our results indicate the overriding influence of familiarity and group-size on the sibling preferences of Puntius sarana subnasutus. The development of familiarity-from larval stages onwards provides a good promise for composite fish culturing