# Betta Experiment



## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

Well this time, I was "forced" to get a betta. I don't really mind, but for my college Animal Behavior class, we all received bettas. My job is to produce an experiment about the bettas. I can use other people in the class' bettas as well, so all the testing wouldn't be on my betta. I am not doing anything that would harm the betta, and all the fish are being well cared for. We also have females so I can test how the males respond to them. Any suggestions are welcome. 

Once I am done, I get to keep him, so I will need a new tank so if anyone has a suggestion on a betta set up that is ~$30 or less and 2.5 gallons +, that would also be helpful. Also, I think I would want his tank to have a sand/ rocky bottom, I've never done that, so advice would be helpful too.

Thanks,
D


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

Very cool! Hmm, I wonder what your experiment will be? Well, I don't know if you like the Critter Keepers or not but one of the Large sized ones should be fine. It's much more lightweight too. I have black sand and plants in mine.


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

Oh, I am taking suggestions for the experiment as well!


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

Hmm. You could test something behavioral (maybe conditioning the fish to respond to something? Or de-sensitize it to a stimulus?) or ecological (as in effects that Bettas have to their environments or sumsuch). Hmm. Is there anything you think of at the moment? Any testable questions? 

Since you don't want to stress the animals too much, that rules out temperature tests and toxin tests. Um, hmm. OH! Oh! Measure poop! Something with that! Measure the weight of poop and test that poop for various chemicals/toxins in the fish. Your hypothesis could be something along the lines of: 

"Can Betta splendens be an indicator for poor or good water-quality based upon their excrement?" or if you're going behavioral, "Can Betta splendens be conditioned to do [some task] as an idicator of problem-solving?" or even, "Does Betta splendens have memory-capacity?" (That would be fun to see how many 'things'/behaviors the fish can be taught to memorize)


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## JustinieBeanie (Apr 22, 2013)

I think a test on betta learning would be really interesting! For example, for something more simple you could teach them to trigger a button for food, or teach them to do something, then once they have it down, see how long they can go and still remember the trick after a set time period. These might be a little more complicated- teach a trick using different techniques to see which techniques they respond better to, or teach some of them a trick (for a food reward would probably work best) have the non-trick bettas observe the trick learners doing the trick and receiving a reward, and see if they replicate the same behavior in anticipation of the same reward, based solely on their own observations of the trick learners doing the behavior for food.
I also think tests on bettas color vision and color perception would be interesting, you could design tests to demonstrate if they only see shades of one color (like gray) or if they see multiple colors, in shades or not. It would be cool to see what colors if any, they are able to detect, and how well they can tell the difference between closely "related" colors like blue/purple or yellow/orange.


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## Skyewillow (Dec 28, 2012)

for a tank, usually a glass 2.5 would cost about $11-12, craft mesh and some seran wrap would make a cheap lid. If you lived closer, I'd give you some of our excess sand.. :-(


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Would be interesting to do an experiment on what type of males females prefer. 
Could get a few eggy, mature females and some some red pk and vt males and some blue pk and vt males and see which types they spend more time at.
Or see if females prefer males that looked like their father or different.
Or do females prefer extremely aggressive acting males or more passive ones


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## RainbowsHaven (Aug 28, 2013)

I'm not sure if the same will apply to you, but right now my local petsmart has a 10 gallon Aquarium/Hood/Light/Filter combo on sale for like $32! It's a couple dollars cheaper at my store, but the normal sale price is supposed to be $35 and the list price is higher than that, but I don't recall what... I would check there, though  I'm not sure how long the sale will last or if it's nationwide, but it might be worth a try!


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

So I think this will be my hypothesis: 
Hypothesis: Female Betta splendens choose more aggressive males because breeding with aggressive males causes the male progeny to better secure mates and territory.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

That sounds like a fun one to do.
How are you going to define aggressiveness? Flaring for over 10 mins=aggressive, less than 10 mins=passive?


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## JustinieBeanie (Apr 22, 2013)

Dwarden3 said:


> So I think this will be my hypothesis:
> Hypothesis: Female Betta splendens choose more aggressive males because breeding with aggressive males causes the male progeny to better secure mates and territory.


Oh that's a good one! I'm also curious as to how betta aggression is typically defined or categorized. Let us know how it goes!


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## fawx (Aug 21, 2013)

Subbing


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

I am defining aggression using reaction times to certain stimuli, i.e. a reflection in the mirror. All betta's will eventually flare, but I am looking for bettas who flare very quickly. Though, I may now do it by how long they flare. To go off that. I could expose them to the mirror several times and see how many exposures it would take for them to just stop caring when I put the mirror in the water. I.e. a non-aggressive betta would become disinterested in another betta after X exposures, but an aggressive betta would take much longer to become disinterested -- kinda like sensory adaptation.


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

I like it! What is your dependent and independent variable? Will the males be kept in opaque tanks to prevent them from becoming aggressive at their reflection in the tank walls instead of at the mirrored fish? How will you decide if a female betta 'chooses' a male? Will you display the female to the male?


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

Males are already kept in opaque tanks for that reason. I will decide count the number of times a female swims to a male, and I will see which one she becomes submissive to/ shows breeding bars for. Independent variable is aggressive or non aggressive. Dependent is the female choice. 
Later this year I may study the effect of color on female choice.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Females often bar up when trying to show dominance eg flaring at another female, so Im not sure if barring up would be a solid indicator. But you could also do how long the females stay at a particular male. 
I think I read a paper on a similar study about bettas and mate choice, Ill see if I can find it for you


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## Weaver (Sep 8, 2013)

Good-good! This all sounds good Dwarden3! It looks like it'll be a good experiment to perform.


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## rickey (Jul 7, 2013)

Betta lab Experiment

Agonistic Behavior in Betta splendens


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

Triolobite, could I measure it by time spent near male and if she shows submissive behavior ( swimming towards him with head down.) ?


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## AnimalLov3 (Aug 26, 2013)

I did an animal behavior camp and got a betta as well! Not forced on me, but offered. o3o Your project sounds awesome!


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## karenluvsbettas623 (Jul 13, 2013)

I feel like it shouldn't have been forced on anyone, it adds to the idea that bettas are disposable. Please direct all of your classmates to this site to learn about care, and let them know that they can use this site to rehome if necessary.


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

They all have homes lined up. They go to our prof's kids or we can take them home. Not to be mean, but in scientific terms, they are disposable.


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Heres a few papers on Betta mate choice, cant find the one I found ages ago but these might give you ideas on how they determined female preference. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2001.tb00225.x/abstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01281.x/pdf

http://www.academia.edu/202431/Soci...ale_and_female_fighting_fish_Betta_splendens_


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

I am going to create an aggression index to find out the aggressiveness of a male. For one hour, I will show a male his reflection in a mirror, and will time how long it takes him to flare at it. Then I will take it out for 2 minutes and repeat for 30 trials, or until the male becomes used to the reflection ( does not flare for 1 minute of exposure). I will use this formula: a= 1- (avg. time until flare / # of responses until habituation). I think that will work, if it does not, I will have to change the formula a bit. 

-Don


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

I finally decided on an Aggression Index:


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

I have selected 6 males. Here are their scores on the Aggression Index
Aggressive male 1:0.0484
Aggressive male 2:0.0231
Aggressive male 3:0.051
Passive male 1:0.333
Passive male 2:1.14
Passive male 3:3.13

Passive male 1 is somewhat aggressive, but overall passive. Anything more than 0.1 on the Aggression Index is considered passive.


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## Dwarden3 (Apr 1, 2013)

This is the figure that essentially sums up the report.


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