Mating Tendencies of Male Poecilia reticulate

Abstract

Male guppies show a variety of colors and have many mating behaviors to attract females. However, if male guppies have the decision of who they mate with, their selection must be based on different factors because females do not express the same color variety or mating displays as the males do. Since colors are not as various for the females and it has been noted that larger females are preferred by males, we decided to test if the male guppies are more intrigued by a guppy model in motion than a motionless guppy model. To test this, we observed a male guppy’s behavior in a tank with our articulated fish model and a control fish model of the same color and similar size. We hypothesized that the articulated fish model would be more likely to draw the male guppy in than the motionless control fish model. Our results supported this hypothesis; the male guppy spent the majority of his time in the tank around the articulated fish model and exhibited more mating displays toward the articulated fish model. Since male guppies base their mate choice on which female would be most likely to produce his offspring, it makes sense then that a fish model in motion would be more attractive than a stationary fish model.