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1 July 2009 Sex-Assortative Shoaling in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Aleksey Etinger, Janette Lebron, Brian G. Palestis
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Abstract

Shoals of fish are often composed of individuals similar in body size or other characteristics. This study tested for the assortment by sex (controlled for body size) in a species with a low degree of sexual dimorphism. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) shoaling was studied in the laboratory using four different experiments utilizing two different methodologies. In most of the experiments, females showed a statistically significant preference for shoaling with other females, but males typically showed no preference. In choice experiments zebrafish preferred swimming near a compartment containing another zebrafish compared to swimming near an empty compartment, but this preference was strongest for same-sex pairings, both female-female and male-male. In additional choice experiments, the results showed a preference among females (but not males) for a group of three same-sex fish over three opposite-sex fish. There was no consistent result when females were forced to choose between three females and six males, thus the preference for same-sex shoalmates may be balanced with a preference for larger shoals. The second methodology used freely-swimming groups of four fish. Females swam closer to females than to males, but males showed no preference. Few previous studies have demonstrated sex-assortative shoaling.

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Aleksey Etinger, Janette Lebron, and Brian G. Palestis "Sex-Assortative Shoaling in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)," BIOS 80(4), 153-158, (1 July 2009). https://doi.org/10.1893/011.080.0402
Received: 15 February 2008; Accepted: 1 September 2008; Published: 1 July 2009
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