Predictors of dominance in male Betta splendens..

Abstract

The formation of dominance/subordinancy relations in pairs of male Siamese fighting fish was examined in six experiments. Dominant animals typically were those fish that built the largest nests and that attacked an image of a live, displaying male most intensely prior to combat. However, pretest performance on an operant task and reaction to an animal's own mirror image were not useful predictors of subsequent dominance. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that domesticated Bettas have a territorial social strategy that includes both nest-building and fighting behaviors.Domesticated male Betta splendens, commonly known as Siamese fighting fish, in fact, exhibit highly variable social behavior. Rather than being "fighting fish," some individuals are decidedly nonaggressive; others do attack conspecifics intensely (Simpson, 1968). Bronstein (1981aBronstein ( , 1983aBronstein ( , 1984Bronstein ( , 1985, in press-a) also noted the behavioral diversity of domesticated Bettas, and, furthermore, suggested that intense attackers could be differentiated from the less aggressive subjects early in an encounter: First, male-male contests can last half a day, by which time one fish almost always has dominated its opponent (Bronstein, 1984). Second, when a pair of male Bettas confront each other, it appears that the most persistent attacker eventually becomes dominant and causes its opponent to retreat (Bronstein, 1981a(Bronstein, , 1984. Third, animals that are most quickly excited to intense attack by the visual image of a persistently displaying male conspecific are also the fish that will mqst persist in their aggressive behavior (Bronstein, 1981a(Bronstein, , 1983a(Bronstein, , 1985.It follows from these behavioral relations that the winner of a male-male contest might be predicted by some brief prefight

Mate Choice and Spawning Success in the Fighting FishBetta splendens: the Importance of Body Size, Display Behavior and Nest Size

“…We focused upon a particular display in this study, the opercular (= frontal) display, which is defined as the erection of the gill opercula to an angle of almost 90° to the head (Simpson 1968). The opercular display is the predominant component of both courtship behavior and male–male aggression in B. splendens (Bronstein 1985), and display rates are positively correlated with fight outcome between live combatants in this species (Simpson 1968; Robertson & Sale 1974; Evans 1985; Bronstein 1994). Their discrete, tonic nature also makes opercular displays easily and reliably quantified.…”

The effects of duration of territorial residence on aggression in convict cichlids

“…This higher level of aggression by the resident results in the resident's attacking first and eventually dominating the intruder. Bronstein (1985) and Evans (1985) have reported that in Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens), the pair member that has a higher level of aggression prior to an encounter is significantly more aggressive than its adversary throughout the encounter. Their findings suggest that the initiation of attack by a territorial resident might be interpreted as an asymmetry in fighting ability (Maynard Smith & Parker, 1976) by an intruder.…”

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“…In Thailand, breeders have used a variety of concoctions to enhance the male/female ratio, e.g., mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) leaf extract. 36 Much work on betta aggression has looked into the general sociobiological and psychological aspects of behaviour rather than the fish themselves [37][38][39][40][41] .…”