ORGANIZATION OF DANIO RERIO (HAMILTON 1822) (CYPRINIDAE) EXPLORATORY BEHAVIOUR IN A MAZE

摘要

To find out whether fish are capable of spontaneous alternations indicating the ability to memorize the traveled path in a plus maze without reference points, an experiment with Danio rerio (Cyprinidae) was performed. Some individuals showed a high level of spontaneous alternation; however, the average value for all fish did not differ from random, being equal to 44.4%. Danio rerio did not use the memory of the traveled path in the man-. Fish were shown to use stable strategies of exploratory behavior in the plus maze: detours of the maze arms clockwise or counter-clockwise and shuttle transitions between two arms of the maze. Correlation analysis showed that the higher the percentage of detours, the higher the level of spontaneous alternation, the higher the percentage of shuttle transitions, and the lower the level of alternation. Thus, high levels of alternation observed in some individuals can be explained by the high percentage of detours. In addition, we did not find any asymmetrical preference of D. rerio to turn left or right on leaving an arm of the maze. Neither the influence of arm length on spontaneous alternations and nor strategies of exploratory behaviour were revealed.