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ABSTRACT
A study was carried out to investigate the daily rhythms of locomotor and feeding activity of Khajoo, Schizothorax pelzami, a candidate species for freshwater aquaculture. Using self-feeder juvenile Khajoo were exposed to a 12/12 LD cycle to determine the rhythms of locomotor and feeding activity. The effects of feeding on locomotor and feeding activity of fish were also examined. Finally, the endogenous rhythmicity under different lighting condition tested. Fish displayed a strictly diurnal feeding and locomotor activities with 98% and 84% of the total activity occurred in the photophase, respectively. In scheduled feeding, both the L-group (fed in light) and the D-group (fed in the dark) showed a diurnal locomotor activity pattern. However, the L-group had a peak of locomotor activity near the feeding time, but the D-group had a scarce locomotor activity in the scatophase with no significant change at the mealtime. Most of the individuals display free-running rhythms when exposed to different lighting condition including, constant darkness, ultradian 45:45 min LD cycle and reversed DL photo cycle. Taken together the results of this study showed that both locomotor and feeding activity have diurnal rhythms in Khajoo S. pelzami, even fish feeding had taken place at night. Additionally, the free-running locomotor activity of the fish in the absence of external light stimuli, suggests the existence of an endogenous timing mechanism in this fish species.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank Mostafa Babaei for software programing. Also thanks to staff of the Technology Incubator Center of the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. Special thanks to Khalil Eslamloo for English language editing.
Funding
This research was partially supported by PhD grant from the University of Hormozgan awarded to E. Ebrahimi.