Behavior of the Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta Splendens) in a Radical Arm Maze

Sandra Bohn

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

Second Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Keywords

Spatial Memory, Laterality, Betta Splendens

Area of Concentration

Marine Biology

Abstract

Siamese Fighting Fish (Betia spiendens) apparently remembered which arms they had previously visited in an eight-arm radial maze, although they maintained the memory for less than five minutes (Roitblat, Tham, & Golub, 1982). However, the Bettas' performance accuracy may have been due in fact to algorithmic strategies. To test this hypothesis, the Bettas in the current study were observed swimming in a completely accessible, unbaited eight-arm radial maze. The number of different arms entered in eight choices was positively correlated with the percent of consecutively same direction turns. In addition, turning direction in the maze was correlated with side preference of visual aggressive displays. In a second experiment, Bettas were trained in sessions of five trials with four arms always blocked. After a five-minute delay, the fish were tested with all eight arms open. Subjects visited the originally blocked arms more frequently than the originally open arms in initial test trials. Bettas may maintain repeatedly visited spatial locations in reference memory.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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