THE ONTOGENY OF ANTIPREDATOR BEHAVIOR IN PARADISE FISH LARVAE (MACROPODUS-OPERCULARIS) - THE RECOGNITION OF EYESPOTS

The ontogeny of antipredator behaviour of paradise fish was examined u sing a simple testing method. The results showed that the ability to r ecognize eyespots appears in larvae between 15 and 20 days old. At the same time, two horizontally placed eyespots produced the most pronoun ced effect on the behaviour of the larvae. Testing different inbred st rains revealed that the ontogeny of antipredator behaviour is also und er broad genetic control, as the response to a model predator was stro ng in one strain but weak in another. The results suggest that the rec ognition of eyespots coincides with larvae becoming more conspicuous t o predators by the appearance of pigmentation and increasing level of swimming activity (exploration).