Juvenile Nile Tilapia Fish Avoid Red Shelters

ABSTRACT

Shelters are frequently used for fish rearing to improve welfare conditions. In this study, whether Nile tilapia prefers specific shelter colors was evaluated. Thus, fish preference for white, red, blue, green or yellow shelters was tested. A high variation of individual preference responses for the shelter colors among fish was found. Even so, while red shelter was clearly avoided by Nile tilapia, a clear-cut preference could not be concluded. Thus, avoiding red shelters for rearing Nile tilapia is recommended, assuming fish preference, or non-preference, as important elements considering welfare conditions. Moreover, individual variability should also be considered whenever possible.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal welfare
• avoidance
• Nile tilapia
• preference response

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under grant 307387/2013-5. We thank Elisabeth A M Maia and José Maia Filho for helping with the arrangement of the test apparatus.

Disclosure of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [307387/2013-5].