Interpopulation Differences in Shoaling Behaviour in Guppies (Poecilia reticulata): Roles of Social Environment and Population Origin

Polyandry (female multiple mating) can confer important benefits to females, but few studies have considered its potential costs. One such cost may arise through differences in the relatedness of offspring born to females with different mating histories; offspring born to monandrous females are always full siblings, while those produced by polyandrous females may be full or half siblings. These differences may have important consequences for social interactions among offspring. We used artificial insemination in the guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ), a promiscuous live-bearing fish, to evaluate shoaling behaviour in polyandrous and monandrous broods. We combined this information with known parentage data for the polyandrous broods to determine whether sibling relatedness influenced offspring shoaling behaviour. While we detected no effect of mating treatment (polyandry/monandry) on shoaling behaviour, we found that pairs of full siblings spent significantly more time shoaling (and in close proximity) than pairs of half siblings. This latter finding confirms the ability of newborn guppies to distinguish brood mates on the basis of kinship, but also suggests an important and hitherto unrealized potential cost of polyandry: a reduction in within-brood relatedness with potentially important implications for offspring social behaviour.

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The Effect of Social Environment on Male-Male Competition in Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

Ethology ◽

10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01142.x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 112 (1) ◽

pp. 22-32 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Anna C. Price ◽

F. Helen Rodd

Keyword(s):

Social Environment ◽

Poecilia Reticulata ◽

Male Competition

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Personality composition determines social learning pathways within shoaling fish

Proceedings of The Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspb.2020.1871 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 287 (1936) ◽

pp. 20201871

Author(s):

Matthew J. Hasenjager ◽

William Hoppitt ◽

Lee A. Dugatkin

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Social Learning ◽

Social Environment ◽

Poecilia Reticulata ◽

Foraging Behaviour ◽

Behavioural Phenotype ◽

Diffusion Analysis ◽

Learning Pathways ◽

Facilitated Learning ◽

Recovery Latency

In shaping how individuals explore their environment and interact with others, personality may mediate both individual and social learning. Yet increasing evidence indicates that personality expression is contingent on social context, suggesting that group personality composition may be key in determining how individuals learn about their environment. Here, we used recovery latency following simulated predator attacks to identify Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) that acted in a consistently bold or shy manner. We then employed network-based diffusion analysis to track the spread of a novel foraging behaviour through groups containing different proportions of bold and shy fish. Informed associates promoted learning to a greater extent in bold individuals, but only within groups composed predominately of bold fish. As the proportion of shy fish within groups increased, bold individuals instead emerged as especially effective demonstrators that facilitated learning in others. Individuals were also more likely to learn overall within shy-dominated groups than in bold-dominated ones. We demonstrate that whether and how individuals learn is conditional on group personality composition, indicating that selection may favour traits enabling individuals to better match their behavioural phenotype to their social environment.

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The influence of population mixing on newborn shoaling behaviour in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Behaviour ◽

10.1163/1568539x-00003196 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 151 (10) ◽

pp. 1479-1490

Author(s):

C. Sievers ◽

I.W. Ramnarine ◽

A.E. Magurran

Keyword(s):

Poecilia Reticulata ◽

Adaptive Behaviour ◽

Secondary Contact ◽

Parental Origin ◽

Mixed Ancestry ◽

Population Mixing ◽

Local Adaptations ◽

Hybrid Offspring ◽

Subtle Effect ◽

Shoaling Behaviour

The introduction of non-native populations into new habitats where they can mix with the original inhabitants poses a major thread to the genetic distinctiveness of the native population. Interbreeding between introduced and native individuals can disrupt local adaptations and lead to outbreeding depression in resulting hybrid offspring. In the guppy (Poecilia reticulata), shoaling behaviour plays an important part in avoiding predators and is displayed from birth, but differences in shoaling tendency exist between populations. The populations used for our experiment reflect the ones involved in Haskins’ introduction more than 60 years ago, when Guanapo guppies where introduced into the Turure, thereby bringing genetically very distinct populations into secondary contact. This introduction led to an invasive event and subsequent disappearance of the original Turure genotype. Here we show that the mixing of genepools by interbreeding between populations affects adaptive behaviour such as shoaling and creates more variation in the resulting offspring. Furthermore, parental origin has a subtle effect on offspring shoaling behaviour. We found that the shoaling behaviour of hybrid offspring significantly differed from pure-bred offspring of either parental population, but resembled those found in Turure newborns that are likely to be of mixed ancestry as well.

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