Effects Of Metabolic Phenotype And Ecological Context On Schooling Behaviour Of Spinibarbus Sinensis

Group living is a widespread behavior in animals?e.g.,fish shoals,bird flocks and insect swarms?for part or all of their lives,and their collective behavior offers us with some of the most amazing spectacles in nature.Schooling behavior is very common in the animal kingdom and is an important survival strategy for fish.Living in groups can confer a number of costs and benefits to animals.To investigate the effect of metabolic phenotype and food stimulation on spatial position of the Cyprinidae fish within schools under flowing and staic water,and explore the effects of metabolic phenotype and ecological environment type on schooling behavior of the Cyprinidae fish and its repeatability under static water,and examine the surviving rate of individuals with different metabolic phenotype of the Cyprinidae fish.The present study used juvenile Spinibarbus sinensiswith similar body weight and healthy as experimental model at?26.1±0.1?^oC.The present study had five batches with each including 40 individual sand a total of 200 individuals.Each group includes four types of metabolic phenotype?High SMR/High AS,High SMR/Low AS,Low SMR/High AS,and Low SMR/Low AS?group with each metabolic phenotype including one individual.A total of 32 groups?128individuals?were employed in the present experiment.On the 1^st day,four individuals in each group were placed in the flow swimming flume to video their schooling behavior.On the 2^nd day,this group was transferred to the circular arena?still water?to their schooling behavior.After the video of each batch of the experimental fish,fish were placed in a circulating tank for a three-days predation experiment,and the survival of each phenotype was obtained and calculated.Finally,all videos were analyzed to calculate swimming speed?v?,velocity synchronization?Sv?,nearest neighbor distance?NND?,polarization while moving?P?,distance from group centroid?DC?,percentage of time spent on moving?PTM?of the group and other schooling behavior parameters.The results are as follows:?1?No significant effect of metabolic phenotype and food stimulation on spatial position and its coefficient of variation of the Spinibarbus sinensis schooling behavior was found under the flow condition.No difference in the time utilization of refuge was detected among four metabolic phenotypein the Spinibarbus sinensis under hydrostatic conditions.The effects of metabolic phenotype and ecological environmental type on total foraging time,foraging intake and foraging efficiency of Spinibarbus sinensis did not detected.There was no significant difference in the survival among four metabolic phenotypes after the predation.?2?The swimming speed and locomotion distance of individuals?or groups?of the Spinibarbus sinensis were higher in the environment with food and refuge than those in both the control and food environment under the condition of still water?P<0.05?.The synchronism of individual swimming speed of the experimental fish with different metabolic phenotypes was lower than that in both the control and food environment under the condition of still water?P<0.05?.The synchronized swimming speed of the experimental fish was significantly lower in the environment with food and refuge than that in both the control and food environment?P<0.05?.The inter-individual distance between phenotype Low SMR/High AS and Low SMR/Low AS was significantly larger in the environment with food and refuge than in both the control and food environment?P<0.05?while there was no significant difference in inter-individual distance between phenotype High SMR/High AS and High SMR/Low AS.?3?The nearest neighbor distance of High SMR/High AS phenotype was significa-ntly higher than those of both Low SMR/High AS phenotype and Low SMR/Low AS phenotype under still water condition?P<0.05?.The distance between the experimental fish with High SMR/High AS phenotype and the group center was significantly higher than those of both Low SMR/High AS and Low SMR/Low AS phenotype?P<0.05?.No difference in the nearest neighbordistance among four metabolic phenotypes could be found across three ecological environments.Individual phenotypic characteristics?individual velocity,individual swimming distance,individual acceleration,individual synchronization of speed,inter-individual distance,and percentage time of moving?were not different among four metabolic phenotypes.Group characteristics?groupacceleration,nearest neighbor distance and group polarity?were not significantly differ-ent across three ecological contexts.?4?The spatial position within school of four metabolic phenotypes of theSpinibarbus sinensis was repeatable between the control and food context.In addition to individual locomotion acceleration,individual characteristics of four metabolic phenot-ypes were repeatedly measured across three ecological contexts.With the exception of group acceleration and polarity,the group characteristics of different metabolic phenot-ypes were consistent across three ecological contexts.The present study suggested that metabolic phenotype and ecological context had no influence on spatial position with school in Spinibarbus sinensis.The nearest neighbor distance between different metabolic phenotypes of Spinibarbus sinensis was different.There were no significant differences in individual characteristics?Individual swimming speed,Individual moving distance,Synchronization of swimming speed,Inter-individual distance,Percentage time of moving?,predation survival rate and hiding place time between Spinibarbus sinensis metabolic phenotypes.Consistent behavior of Spinibarbus sinensis population is stable in different environments.