News and Events
Ichthyology Betta Aggression Lab
March 29, 2011
Students in the Ichthyology class at Washington College, taught by Dr. Martin Connaughton, observed and experimented with male Betta fish and their displays of aggression. Students learned the different signs of aggression (opercle expansion, lateral display, approach, fin spreading, etc.) that a male might exhibit in order to intimidate an opposing male, an object outside the tank, or even its own reflection. After observing their behavior, students developed their own experiments to determine the impact of factors such as fish size, fish color, and opercle size on the fish's display of aggression.
Students recorded the exhibited behavior every 5 seconds for two minute intervals.
Male betta fish are aggressive and must be kept secluded so they can relax.
Some students used a mirror to enlarge the fish's reflection to test if a larger fish would elicit a more aggressive or more passive behavior.
Opercle expansion.
Lateral display and fin spreading.
Testing how the fish's response varies depending on the size of the opposing fish's opercles.
Does the color of an opposing fish make a betta more or less aggressive?
It's all very scientific! After calculating the overall behavior time, students determined how much time was spent exhibiting each display. Students were then able to draw conclusions about the behavior of the fish and whether or not their tested factors influenced the fish's behavior.