Association learning and preference of females and males of the blue orchid, Aulonocara nyassae Regan, 1922 in a T-maze

ABSTRACT

Males and females of various species spend energy on different activities throughout the day in their natural environment. Thus, the present study aimed to assess whether males and females of A. nyassae differ in learning and preferences through two experiments. Experiment 1 subjected animals to learning by association in a T-maze test. Experiment 2 subjected males and females to a preference test in a T-maze, with each tank arm receiving one of the two following positive stimuli: shelter or food. Experiment 1 found that both sexes were able to learn the association between neutral and positive stimuli. Experiment 2 found that, regardless of sex, the animals frequented more the arm with the presence of shelter. This study demonstrates that males and females of A. nyassae were able to learn the task of object and food association and also preferred to take shelter over eating, even after exposure to stress.

KEYWORDS:

• Cichlidae
• African cichlid
• latency
• freezing
• ornamental
• fish behavior

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq-Brasil) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES-Brasil). R. K. Luz received a research grant and a research fellowship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq n°.308547/2018-7).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution or practice at which the studies were conducted. Ethics committee on animal experimentation of UFMG (CEUA/UFMG) under the numbers 145/2020 and 20/2021.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES [001]; CNPQ [308547/2018-7]; Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) [001].