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First published online June 15, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, iii (2007)
Copyright © 2007 The Company of Biologists Limited
doi: 10.1242/jeb.008458

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Inside JEB

AN ELECTRIFYING COURTSHIP

Laura Blackburn

laura{at}biologists.com

In the murky waters of their African home, mormyrid electric fish (Brienomyrus brachyistius) use pulses from their electric organ to sense their surroundings, find prey and communicate with each other. The waveform of a fish's pulse is like an electronic `fingerprint', telling others their species, sex and social status. On the other hand the sequence and pattern of pulses tells other fish a great deal about an animal's behaviour and its motivation, for example if it is aggressively defending its territory or courting another fish.

Researchers hit a problem when they wanted to find out more about the fishes' courtship signals, because electric fish are fiendishly difficult to breed in captivity. However Ryan Wong and Carl Hopkins tempted four pairs of fish to court each other by carefully creating ideal breeding conditions in the lab (p. 2244). Using a combination of video recording and computer software that distinguished between the electric organ pulses from individual fish, the team classified nine behaviours and 11 pulse sequences that occurred during both normal interactions and courtship. For example during courtship, males typically lunge at females, follow them around the tank and circle head to tail with them before spawning. Certain pulse sequences were more common during courtship, where male fish serenade females with lower frequency `creaks' and higher frequency `rasps'. The team also found that males and females took part in duets, alternating sequences of rasps and staccato `bursts'. The next step will be to decode the fishes' transmissions and unravel their meaning.

References

Wong, R. Y. and Hopkins, C. D. (2007). Electrical and behavioral courtship displays in the mormyrid fish Brienomyrus brachyistius. J. Exp. Biol. 210,2244 -2252.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Related articles in JEB:

Electrical and behavioral courtship displays in the mormyrid fish Brienomyrus brachyistius

Ryan Y. Wong and Carl D. Hopkins
JEB 2007 210: 2244-2252. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JEB Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Blackburn, L. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Blackburn, L. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?