Getting Groovy with Guppy’s: The effect of lifelike mobility on mating behavior of guppy’s

Abstract

Guppies have been used abundantly in the past to to study sexual behaviours of fish.  We studied the effect of movement on the sexual behaviors of male guppies. Past studies have shown the male guppy’s exhibit more mating behaviors towards large, more fecund, and/or colored females. So we tested two large (identical in measurement), red, 3D printed models of guppies using different hanging methods.  Our Control hung from a stiff wire to prevent movement, while our experimental model hung from fishing line allow movement. We found that the fishing line did allow the model guppy more movement and appear more life-like. Although precautions were taken our results showed that the male guppy spent a significant amount of time on the right tank and little to no behavioral mating tactics were exhibited by the male guppy towards our models. Changing the wire to fishing line to allow model mobility did not influence male mating behavior. More experiments should be conducted in the future to better the outcomes of this experiment.