Purple Rain: Investigation of male guppy, Poecilia reticulate, attraction to “True” vs. “Translucent” purple female guppy models

Abstract

Sexual selection for male guppies can be determined by many factors. For this lab we investigated to see if color influenced the decision of a male guppy, Poecilia reticulate, picking a mate. In our experiment, our female models are true purple and translucent purple. Based on this experiment, our group hypothesized that the male would show more sexual interests in the translucent purple model because it resembles the scales of a real fish. Our results showed that the guppies favored the true purple model. The male guppy displayed more courtship behaviors and spent more time with the true purple model. Many factors including a motionless model and previous interactions of the guppies could have affected our results.