Male Siamese fighting fish use gill flaring as the first display towards territorial intruders

• Published in: Journal of ethology Vol. 35; no. 1; pp. 51 - 59
• Main Authors: Forsatkar, Mohammad Navid, Nematollahi, Mohammad Ali, Brown, Culum
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aggressive behavior; Animal behavior; Animal Ecology; Behavioral Sciences; Betta splendens; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Defensive behavior; Ethology; Evolutionary Biology; Fins; Fish; Gills; Kinematics; Life Sciences; Nests; Territorial behavior; Zoology; Parental care; Reproduction; Chronic response; Aggression; Acute response; Male behavior
• ISSN: 0289-0771; 1439-5444
• DOI: 10.1007/s10164-016-0489-1

The Siamese fighting fish ( Betta splendens ) is well known as an aggressive fish with unique spawning and parental care behavior. During reproduction, male fish construct a bubble nest, court females, protect the brood, and defend the territory through aggressive displays. Aggression in male Siamese fighting fish has long been the subject of investigation; however, the kinematics of aggression during contests have been largely overlooked. Here we investigated how nest-holding, male Siamese fighting fish use two different types of displays, gill flaring and fin spreading, towards intruders during various reproductive phases; before (BB) and after bubble nest building, and after spawning (AS), and hatching (AH). Males were more aggressive towards male than female intruders and the level of aggression changed significantly between reproductive phases. Gill flaring, the more energetically costly display, was the dominant initial display towards male and female intruders in BB, AS, AH phases. However, defending males switched to fin spreading after prolonged exposure to intruders. The results suggest that Siamese fighting fish use gill flaring as an acute response in order to defend their territory; this response may be replaced by fin spreading as a chronic response, probably to reduce the energetic costs during the contest.