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Effects of social interaction on the electric organ discharge in a mormyrid fish, Gnathonemus petersii (Mormyridae, Teleostei)

Thomas A. Terleph^1,* and Peter Moller^1,2

¹ Hunter College of the City University of New York, Department of Psychology
² The American Museum of Natural History, Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Ichthyology), Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, USA

View larger version (15K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Test tanks illustrating how fish were either restricted in their interactions (upper panel) or could freely interact (lower panel). The central divider consisted of a plastic mesh partition. Dividers on the left prevented fish from hiding behind the tank's filter.

View larger version (9K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. A typical electric organ discharge (EOD) from a subadult G. petersii. EODs consist of four phases: P1, P2, P3 and P4. The combined durations of P2 and P3 were used as the duration measure in this study. A2 and A3 refer to the amplitudes of phases 2 and 3, respectively.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Effect of dominance status on mean electric organ discharge (EOD) duration (error bars ± 1 S.E.M.) of freely interacting female–female (A), male–male (B) and mixed-sex (C) pairs of Gnathonemus petersii (N=5 fish per group). EOD duration increased in all groups during interaction, with most of the increase occurring in dominant fish. The horizontal bar spanning days 4–8 represents the duration of interaction.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Effect of dominance status on mean amplitude ratio (error bars ± 1 S.E.M.) of freely interacting female–female (A), male–male (B) and mixed-sex (C) pairs of G. petersii (N=5 fish per group). Amplitude ratios increased in male and female pairs, with the highest amplitude ratios occurring during interaction. Dominant fish showed a trend of increasing amplitude ratio across manipulation periods. The horizontal bar spanning days 4–8 represents the duration of interaction.

View larger version (25K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Mean electric organ discharge (EOD) duration (error bars ± 1 S.E.M.) of freely interacting, restricted interaction and solitary female–female (A) and male–male (B) pairs of G. petersii. Both free and restricted female pairs showed a comparable increasing trend. This trend did not occur in male pairs. The EOD in solitary fish of both sexes remained unchanged. The horizontal bar spanning days 4–8 represents the duration of interaction.

View larger version (27K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. Mean electric organ discharge (EOD) duration (A) and amplitude ratio (B) (error bars ± 1 S.E.M.; N=5 per group) as a function of pseudo-dominance status under conditions of restricted interaction (female G. petersii dyads). Pseudo-dominant females showed increases in EOD duration relative to their neighbors. Pseudo-subordinates showed no increase in amplitude ratio during the interaction period, although amplitude ratio did remain higher than or comparable with that of the pseudo-dominant group throughout the interaction. The horizontal bar spanning days 4–8 represents the duration of interaction.