Abstract
Studies on personality have revealed that some personality traits are strongly correlated; thus, researchers may be able to acquire data for variables related to different personality traits from one measurement. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to test whether spontaneous movement traits used in fish personality measurements are correlated or vary among different contexts in a common Chinese cyprinid fish, the pale chub (Zacco platypus, Cyprinidae). The median swimming speed, percent time spent moving and median turning rate were measured in a boldness context (with a shelter available), then in an exploration context (with a novel object nearby) and finally in a control context (i.e., with no shelter or novel object). The median swimming speed, percent time spent moving, and median turning rate all showed positive correlations between the control and the other two contexts, which suggests that future studies might use spontaneous swimming variables measured in exploration or boldness contexts to avoid the need to carry out a separate activity test. Further analysis comparing the distance to and latency to explore the novel object between the exploration context (with the novel object present) and control context (with an imaginary object at the same position) showed that the amount of time it took for the fish to first reach the object for exploration was significantly shorter in an exploration context than in a control context. This suggests that latency to explore might be useful as a variable indicating exploration in the pale chub in the future.
Highlights
Animal personality is measured as a consistent difference among individuals in behaviors such as boldness, exploration and activity (Sih, Bell & Johnson, 2004; Bell, Hankison & Laskowski, 2009; Réale et al, 2010; Mazué & Godin, 2015; Jolles et al, 2019)
The median swimming speed of fish measured in the boldness context was significantly higher than that measured in both the exploration and control contexts
The percent time spent moving measured in the boldness context was significantly larger than that measured in the exploration context (Wilcoxon test, z = −4.873, P < 0.001), whereas the latter was significantly larger than that measured in the control context (Wilcoxon test, z = −5.083, P < 0.001)
Summary
Animal personality is measured as a consistent difference among individuals in behaviors such as boldness, exploration and activity (Sih, Bell & Johnson, 2004; Bell, Hankison & Laskowski, 2009; Réale et al, 2010; Mazué & Godin, 2015; Jolles et al, 2019). Fish biologists usually use the characteristics of spontaneous activities (movements without external stimulus) in an arena, for example, the median swimming speed and percent time moving during a given period (Brown & Irving, 2014; Liu & Fu, 2017). One could measure the activity variables mentioned above from spontaneous movement trajectories of fish being tested in a boldness or an exploration context. I tested the correlations between the activity (i.e., control) context and the other two contexts but did not test the correlation between the boldness and exploration contexts because the test conditions were not strictly controlled between these two contexts; i.e., in the boldness context, there was a shelter nearby but no novel object, whereas in the exploration context, there was a novel object but no shelter nearby
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