Do Male Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) Gravitate Towards a Gravid Spot?

Abstract

During the mating process, male guppies display signs of courtship in order to convince the females to mate with them. The primary traits males look for is fertility of female and potential survivability of offspring. A gravid spot on the female guppy indicates developmental progress and reproductive success, and is best described a dark circular spot on the lower abdomen by the anal fin of female guppies. We hypothesize that if the female model has a gravid spot then the male will perform more courtship behaviors toward her because of her proven reproductive success. For our experiment, we exposed 10 male guppies respectively to two models created with a 3D printer to see which they preferred: a control model and an experimental model of the same dimensions with a gravid spot. The male guppies did not show a preference to either model in our trials (W= 14 ,N=10,p>0.05). Our results showed that the male guppies had no sexual preference for either model, therefore we were unable to support our hypothesis.