Abstract
Males of the mouthbreeding cichlid fish, Haplochromis burtoni, were visually isolated from conspecifics for periods of 15 minutes to 12 days. The number of attacks directed at adult conspecifics increased by 2 and 7 hours of isolation but after sufficiently long isolation (12 days) the attack rate decreased. The sexual activity increased after only 15 minutes of isolation. With longer periods of isolation this increase became more pronounced. The aggressive and sexual behaviour were thus differently affected by isolation and this disputes any influence on the reproductive behaviour in general. Shortly after termination of isolation the sexual activity was generally high while the attack rate was low. Throughout the first 30 minutes of contact with conspecifics the attack rate increased while the sexual activity decreased. After the longest periods of isolation, however, the maximal sexual activity tended to occur later (5-15 minutes after the isolation). After isolation periods of 3 and 12 days the increase of the sexual activity lasted a couple of hours while the decrease in the attack rate after 12 days of isolation seemed to persist for several days. The results can be explained in terms of adaptive short-term and long-term incremental and decremental processes in different motivational systems and an attempt is made to relate the results to the biological conditions of the species.
Subject
Behavioral Neuroscience,Animal Science and Zoology
Cited by
15 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献