Most Interesting Livebearer To Study?

[AngelPen]

I'm in my second year at uni studing biology, and it's come to the time when I need to choose a topic for my dissertation. I had an interesting idea about looking into mating preferences of fish, and have put the idea across to my tutor who also seems to like the idea, but said I need to find an interesting species of fish to study and also come up with a good question.

So I thought maybe some of you on here may be able to help me. I thought I would use a livebearer as they are easy to breed, I've had experience with my own guppies, and had mollies when I was younger. The fish would not be harmed or suffer in any way, there are strict regulations when it comes to studying fish, so they will be looked after properly. I'm also hoping to set it up at home, so I can care for them myself.

I would like to know however which livebearer species you think is most interesting to study and what makes it interesting? Now I realise there could be a number of different ways a fish could be regarded as interesting, but if you could give me some ideas maybe I can get a bit closer to deciding on my topic! I'm not that up on livebearer species, so don't know all about the different ones.

 

[nmonks]

Mating preferences have been very widely studied, so spend a little time going through the animal behaviour literature. Also be sure and read Stephan Reebs' book Fish Behavior in the Aquarium and in the Wild as this not only summarises the current state of things but also includes lists of academic references.

When choosing work on animals in the lab, it isn't always useful to choose the most "interesting" species but to go with one that is easy to keep and use, and known to be amenable to the types of research you have in mind. My personal recommendation would be Endler guppies, P. wingei, because you can raise good hypotheses (that they will be similar to guppies) and then test them by running similar experiments to ones in the literature. You can then note any differences, and if they exists, make comparisons with other species of Poecilia.

Endlers also have the advantage of being small (always good in lab animals) so you can run lots of duplicates simulataneously and divide some into experimental runs and others into controls, and then use statistics to draw your conclusions. More interesting livebearers, like sailfin mollies or halfbeaks would be more expensive and more demanding, and consequently any data you collect would likely be drawn from a smaller group of animals and therefore less statistically sound.

Cheers, Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

comments withdrawn as the Man-Who-Knows has spoken. But endlers sound good, as they combine cheapness and ease of keeping with definite differences in appearance that even we humans can see. I mean, it would be equally cheap and easy to keep large populations of say heterandrias, but they all look the same to us, so would be harder to interpret results. Though come to think of it, wild guppies from different locations might still work- except it's probably been done to death.

 

[nmonks]

No, no, please put your comments back! Don't want to jump on anyone's toes!

Neale

comments withdrawn as the Man-Who-Knows has spoken.

 

[dwarfgourami]

No, no, please put your comments back! Don't want to jump on anyone's toes!

Neale

comments withdrawn as the Man-Who-Knows has spoken.

My toes are fine, Neale. But your post was better.

 

[AngelPen]

Thank you for your very helpful reply. When I was asking for the most interesting species, this was my tutors words and not mine.

I have since spoken to him today as we had a lecture about the dissertation. He has given me a few ideas for methods, and said to find a species that has not had the same thing done to it, which guppies have, but Endler guppies may be ok, I will start doing some research, and yes will be sure to check out the book you recommended. I could still use a species that has been studied a lot though, if I find a slightly different angle to use.

Which journals would be best to look through for this sort of research?

 

[helterskelter]

If your in the UK and want true endlers then I can get them for you.

but it could be interesting to look into some goodieads their totally different to common livebeares and have a very structured courtship routine and pecking order to the social family groups.

 

[AngelPen]

Are heterandrias and goodeids easy to get hold of? As this is obviously another requirement I need of the fish!

I'm not sure how much uni are willing to fund, as this is still in the very early stages and so I haven't looked into anything like that yet, but I'm hoping they will fund the majority of it!

And yes I am in UK.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Are heterandrias and goodeids easy to get hold of? As this is obviously another requirement I need of the fish!

I'm not sure how much uni are willing to fund, as this is still in the very early stages and so I haven't looked into anything like that yet, but I'm hoping they will fund the majority of it!

And yes I am in UK.

The British Livebearer Association have a trade page- you can check them out, and advertise for any fish you need. Helterskelter has lots of contacts and can no doubt help you get things.

The easiest goodeid to get hold of is probably ameca splendens. We were up at the livebearer auction on Sunday, helterskelter and I, and towards the end they were pretty well giving them away. The drawback with goodeids is, they are a little on the large side and quite lively, so they need space.

For other small fish, it depends really on how brightly coloured/distinctive the males need to be for what you have in mind. You could have some of my portholes if you like, they are easy to breed and easy to accomodate (can't say I've seen the tank looking any emptier since your visit, Helter)- but they're not very, very distinctive, though you could probably tell the males apart. Their mating behavior basically consists of spending the whole of their lives with their noses up a female's bottom, until the appropriate moment comes, when they swing their enormous gonopodium forward- these guys are well endowed. Don't know how much they've been studied, the Latin name is poeciliopsis gracilis.

Endlers should be easy to locate and it might well be interesting to see if/how their behaviour differs from what is known of guppies.