Article On Trout Behavior

[setomonkey]

Thought this was interesting...

 

Mike

 

----------------

 

Fish will change attitude to fit in in school

TENILLE BONOGUORE

 

Globe and Mail update

 

Fish have personalities and will change their behaviour to fit in with other fishes, researchers from the University of Liverpool have found.

 

Rainbow trout were deemed ‘bold' or ‘shy' depending on how they reacted to Lego blocks being dropped into their fish tank: If they went to investigate the new blocks quickly, they were bold. Fish that shied away from the new stimulus were shy.

 

The researchers then compared how these fish reacted when given a chance to mingle with other fish, and when put in view of another fish in a different tank.

 

It turns out, shy fish tend not to take on bolder fish when competing for territory, but if they come up against other shy fish they can start to adopt the outgoing traits of the bold fish. The researchers surmised this could be because the shy fish recognize the shyness, and are willing to take on a competitor they think they can beat.

 

Bold fish, on the other hand, will tone down their behaviour to fit in with more shy counterparts.

 

Dr. Lynne Sneddon and Ashley Frost, from the University's School of Biological Sciences, let the fish interact for 15 minutes a day for one week.

 

“Rainbow trout are a highly aggressive species and naturally form relationships of dominance in a very short time period. They chase after each other to try and exert their dominance,” Dr. Sneddon said.

 

“We found that bold fish that lost their ‘battle' became shyer than usual and shy fish who won their ‘battle' became bolder.”

 

The more time the fish spent together, the more their behaviour changed, she said.

 

Dr. Sneddon told the London Times that the idea that fish have poor memories that only retain information for a matter of seconds was a myth.

 

“Studies have shown that fish can remember for anything up to three years, and current thinking in fish biology is that fish are very diverse in behaviour within any population,” she told the Times.

 

“They also learn from their experiences: They adjust their behaviour according to what they pick up from others.”

 

The research was published on Wednesday by Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

[BrownTown]

thanks for the interesting read!

[Canuck2fan]

OH NO now rainbows are going to school? I'm definitely toast then.....I can't catch the uneducated ones on a regular basis LOL

[outdoorguy61]

An interesting but mildly suspect read. Apologies for being the naysayer, but these sound like hatchery fish. I would like to see or know about this under wild conditions, which might very well might duplicate the findings thus far. Either way....it was still an enoyable read. Thanks for posting.

 

outdoorguy61

[wishn4fishn]

interesting indeed. I guess that's how they become selective genius. thanx for the edu-maction.

[Clampet]

"..The more time the fish spent together, the more their behaviour changed, she said..."

 

Sorta like people folk.

[Guest mistyriver1]

Thanks Mike, good read.

[Bob]

I have to agree with Outdoorguy. Sounds like hatchery fish. I've found that in the wild, especially in streams, trout will occupy prime feeding spots according to size. If you catch a nice trout in a good feeding spot, you can almost bet that, within a day or so, another one of similar size will be occupying the same spot. Bigger fish have the best spots because they can defend them and smaller fish trying to get those spots will shy away when challenged by the bigger ones. Better feeding spot = bigger fish.

[Entropy]

Now we know, and knowing is half the battle.

[Headhunter]

Very interesting read! Thanks for posting. I think I know some people who could learn a thing or two from these trout!

HH

[fishindevil]

well i have always yhought that fish can remember ,i dont know why i just always asummed that they could,so this is very interesting,and might explain some certain fishing situations...cool thanks for posting that article....cheers

[kemper]

Cool, but I read it three months ago...

 

Why are we bringing all these old posts back all of the sudden?

 

Must be march!

[huntervasili]

That is pretty interesting... thanks for the read...