The Guppy Lounge: Can an Enriched Environment Compete with Sexual Attraction for the Poecilia Reticula?

The Guppy Lounge: Can an enriched environment compete with sexual attraction for the Poecilia reticula?

ABSTRACT

In most guppies (Poecilia reticula), there is a strong preference towards the color orange. In females this often is associated with sexual selection and the penchant to favor brightly colored males with hue saturated orange spots rather than the drab males with no orange coloration. In previous studies it has also been shown that guppies have a strong attraction to inanimate orange objects, such as the orange fruit of the Trinidad rainforest or orange objects, such as the disks (Rodd et al. 2005) which perhaps simulate the bright orange fruits produced by the cabrehash tree, favored by the guppies. We chose to explore the attraction of the female guppies towards a large inanimate orange object as opposed to inaccessible males. We present evidence that explores their preference for a visually interesting environment consisting of strong orange coloration vs. their desire to be near an attractive male guppy. This was accomplished through a series of trials with the female fish in differing environments. The sensory bias and “supernormal” stimuli phenomenon were explored. We discovered there was not a strong preference for or against the brightly colored orange sheets, i.e. the enriched orange environment. The females were evenly split between preferring and avoiding the orange environment. In fact a stronger preference for the orange males vs. the orange environment emerged. The results suggest additional trials with inanimate orange objects of various sizes and shapes could prove to be an intriguing adjunct to this experiment.

1. INTRODUCTION

Research has shown the mating preference of female guppies (Poecilia reticula) has strongly been linked to males with larger orange spots of a more saturated hue. (Rodd et al. 2002). Sensory bias has been shown to be a pronounced factor in both sexes of the guppy: attraction to orange objects....