Intra- and interspecific social and aggressive behaviour in the siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens

Abstract

Siamese fighting fish and paradise fish were operantly conditioned to swim through a cylinder to open a door allowing them to explore visually conspecifics, non-conspecifics, or inanimate objects. All stimuli significantly elevated response levels compared to control conditions, but response rate for conspecifics was not higher than for other stimuli. In experiments 2 and 3, fighting fish threatened and attacked non-conspecifics as well as conspecifics, and using a blind procedure, displays to different fish could not be easily differentiated. A final experiment with models failed to reveal any specific shape critical to the elicitation of the threat display. Discussion considers the possibility that the operant behaviour of the fighting fish may be motivated by visual exploration as well as by aggression, and that in actual fighting the social behaviour of the opponent may be more crucial than any particular visual stimulus.