Food‐anticipatory Activity as a Cue for Local Enhancement in Golden Shiners (Pisces: Cyprinidae, Notemigonus crysoleucas)

Abstract

The goal of this study was to test whether food-anticipatory activity, which is more subtle than feeding activity, can be used as a cue for local enhancement by fish. Golden shiners, Notem&onus crysoleucur, were offered a choice between spending time near a shoal of conspecifics normally fed at that time of day or a shoal normally fed at another time. Despite the fact that no food was delivered during the tests, the shoal that was normally fed at that time had more fish moving and more fish close to the surface, where food usually appeared, than the other shoal. This is evidence of food-anticipatory activity. The choosing shiners, after being deprived of food for 24-48 h, preferred to stay near the anticipating shoal rather than near the other one. When satiated, the shiners chose both shoals at random, indicating that hunger promotes the use of food-anticipatory cues in shoal choice and local enhancement. The results also support the idea that food-anticipatory activity can attract competitors for food and may therefore be costly. Food-anticipatory activity might also attract predators, but the fact that satiated shiners did not actively avoid anticipating shoals indicates that the potential cost of predator attraction would be either low or mitigated by other factors.

Time–place learning and leader–follower relationships in Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus

“…Group 2 also displayed anticipatory activity in the hours before the feed was available. Anticipatory activity rather than feeding activity is an established way to study learning behaviour in animals, in particular time‐learning (Davis & Bardach, ; Mistlberger, ; Reebs & Gallant, ). Group 1 showed only a weak significant anticipatory activity before the evening meal but no increase in visit activity before the morning meal.…”

“…Anticipating a temporal food source and being one of the first to get to the food can be of advantage for animals both in nature as well as in captivity (Davis & Bardach, ; Mistlberger, ; Reebs & Gallant, ). Food‐anticipatory activity, however, can also be disadvantageous (Grier & Burk, ) if some individuals have a better ability for TPL than others and they become leaders to individuals that apply a copying strategy and thus compete for a temporally restricted food source (Krebs et al , ).…”

“…Visit activity into a feeding site before defined feeding windows can be used to identify TPL. Anticipatory activity rather than foraging activity per se is an established way to study learning behaviour in animals, in particular time‐learning (Davis & Bardach, ; Mistlberger, ; Reebs & Gallant, ). Further, the profitability behind individual differences in foraging strategy can be compared.…”

Activity Counts: The Effect of Swimming Activity on Quantity Discrimination in Fish

“…More active shoals may be particularly important in natural situations. Shoals containing fast swimming fish may be preferred because activity levels can indicate increased chances of finding food or anticipation of food (Reebs and Gallant, 1997 ), and therefore may convey fitness benefits. The ability to quantify moving stimuli as opposed to stationary stimuli has also been shown in primates (e.g., Beran, 2008 ).…”

A Fish of Weedy Waters: Golden Shiner Biology and Culture

“…In some cases, results have implications for aquaculture. That fish gather in anticipation prior to feeding time (Reebs and Gallant ) or can learn where feed is supplied at different times (Reebs ) are perhaps obvious to a fish farmer. More useful is the fact that minnows tend to shoal with similar‐sized fish (Pitcher et al ; Reebs ), so care must be taken when sampling fish in ponds to collect a representative sample.…”