Guppy Love: How the Presence of a Gravid Spot Influences Male Guppy Mate Choice

Abstract

 In various studies, it has been shown that the presence of gravid spots affect how a male guppy chooses his mate. We hypothesize that the addition of a gravid spot will result in increased expressions of mating behavior.  We used models of 3D female guppies  to test this and observed male guppy behavior—time spent in each portion of the tank and behaviors expressed during that time—towards the opposite sex. Our results disproved our hypothesis—the guppies we tested showed no preference toward either model. This could be because we used a grey model instead of an orange one as it has been shown that guppies prefer mates that reflect longer wavelengths (Francis et al. 2015, Majors et al. 2015).