Exercise 3: Space use and signalling between Siamese fighting fish

Question 1

Territory structure

Answer 1

Divided in a core area and a boundary area

Borders are dynamic

May be gaps between territories, may overlap

Hexagonal is most efficient space use

Question 2

Space use

Answer 2

New territory: all areas equally attractive

With time:
- positive experiences make locations more attractive
- Negative experiences make areas less attractive

Question 3

Territory defense

Answer 3

Aggressive behavior and signalling

Question 4

Communication networks

Answer 4

Territories within signalling range

Question 5

Eavesdropping

Answer 5

Bystanders can extract information from interactions between individuals

Question 6

Siamese fighting fish

Answer 6

Agressive species

Males defend adjacent territories

Males build bubble nest and provide paternal care

Males fight using visual displays and agonistic behaviors

Question 7

Visual display

Answer 7

Lateral display: the fins stand upright and span out (look bigger)

Gill cover erection: gill covering will flare and span outwards

Question 8

Set-up

Answer 8

2 networks and 7 male Betta splendens

1) early stages of territory formation (day 0)

2) late stages of territory formation (day 3)

Question 9

data aquisition

Answer 9

two rounds of data collection, non-adjacent fish

Manual recording of position and display status of fish

Instantaseous sampling every 10 seconds

Note position of bubble nests

Question 10

Data analysis

Answer 10

x^2 tests (difference between distributions (not amounts)

whitney U-test

Question 11

overall conclusion

Answer 11

The siamese fighting fish do appear to have core areas within their territories.

each individual has a few zones with a higher frequency of
observations than other zones, and that there in general is variation between the number of visits to
each zone.

Not observed by bubble nest the most

variation in signalling in the two setups - more in the first