Introduction
The study of ethology is the behavior of animals in the context of evolution, social organization, ecology and animal sensory abilities. The behavior could be explained as all the response an organism has to stimuli to the environment it’s in. Most of the time it’s very …show more content…
difficult to undo complex behavior of organisms in their environment, so therefore in order to understand behaviors of animals are studied in controlled experiments. (Coleman, 2009.) There are two key categories that are taken in account when studying animal behavior which are innate and learned behavior (Johnson, 2005.) In this case the Siamese fighting fish, known as the betta fish demonstrated an innate behavior which is agonistic behavior as well. The Male betta fish are known to be very territorial and hostile to each other. Also if the Betta is threatened they will flare up and increase fin speed, and lunge toward the stimuli that making the most threat (Waller, 1985.) In this lab we observed the Betta’s behavior as it was being provoked due to proximate and ultimate causes. Also we did the experiment by placing a mirror and puppet body stimuli to analyze the behavior of the fish. In doing this experiment, we will witness if the fish becomes more aggressive with the stimuli or stays content. The hypothesis of this experiment was that if the fish feels his territory is being invaded, then he will feel threatened and demonstrate agonistic behaviors.
Materials-Methods
In this lab the material used was the male Betta splendens, numerous applicator wooden sticks, transparent tape, a mirror, construction paper, scissors and some forms where we record times on.
The experiment was done at the University of Texas at Tyler in the BEP building. There were three different tanks with Betta fish and each group performed the assigned experiment with the fish. The first step was to test how aggressive the fish was by slowly moving a mirror to the side of the fish tank and observe the fish response to its own reflection. This procedure lasted for one minute and then the results were recorded. The next step was to take a piece of construction paper that was similar in color to the fish and construct a model to the fish, glue it onto the applicator stick and to slowly present the model to the fish. While presenting the model to the fish, results of how the fish acted toward to stimuli was being recorded by another group member. When the observation was over we took responses that we conducted with the fish we used in the experiment and compared the results of another group’s responses.
Results After concluding the experiment, the fish showed to have a more aggressive approach towards one stimulus than the other. According to the responses that were recorded, the fish seemed to react more aggressively and quickly towards the reflections of himself in the mirror, as shown in figure 1.
Reaction to Stimuli
Figure 1 refers to how quickly the fish
responded
Discussion According to the results, the hypothesis was, in way tested correctly. The fish responded more quickly to the reflection of the mirror, which obviously made him feel more endangered that another fish was also inside of his tank. Even though the fish reacted faster to the mirror; he also showed agonistic behavior toward the puppet. The reaction time wasn’t that quick, but it was present which demonstrated that innate behavior that is already inherited with in a Betta fish. Also another possible reason for the different results in the fish reaction times could be that he was annoyed and or felt that it was almost like a game seeing fish similar to him. The hypothesis could make a difference in which it was predicated, because the fish could have very well reacted much faster toward the model puppet. Also a possible error in the experiment could be not giving the fish enough time to recover from previous groups doing the experiment . There were numerous possibilities that could justify the hypothesis and several that could have affected the total outcome of the experiment. In the end, the Betta fish has many different stimuli that can generate the male behavior. Based on the lab observation, the Betta fish were aggressive and showed agonistic behaviors toward an intruder rather than engaging in physical contact (Colman, 2009.) The characteristic of the Betta Fish showed this because they are protective and dominate of their territory. (Lewis, 1999.) Furthermore, in this project I learned that the Betta fish are aggressive, hostile, and should remain in an environment alone, and away from other fish because they are hot tempered to the human eye.
Resources
Colman, Jessica. Biological investigations. The University of Texas at Tyler. pp. 151-153. 2009
Johnson, Michael. Animal Behavior. 3rd ed. Elsevier Inc. 2005.
Lewis, Jason. Effect of Stimulus and How they Effect Betta Fish. Academic Press. 1ed. 1999.
Wallen K, Wojciechowski Metzlar CI, 1985. Social conditioning and dominance in male Betta splendens. Behav Process 11: 181 -188.