Sv. Budaev, ALTERNATIVE STYLES IN THE EUROPEAN WRASSE, SYMPHODUS-OCELLATUS - BOLDNESS-RELATED SCHOOLING TENDENCY, Environmental biology of fishes, 49(1), 1997, pp. 71-78
Underwater field observations in a non-reproductive period revealed en
ormous variation in schooling tendencies among individual european wra
sses, Symphodus ocellatus. The fish occupying vegetated habitats displ
ayed much more pronounced schooling tendencies than those from open ar
eas. Sixteen solitary and schooling males were caught with a small sei
ne and observed in a novel environment. The former individuals turned
out to be much more bold and active than the latter in this test, whic
h would suggest lower fear and higher exploratory tendency. It was hyp
othesized that the bolder wrasses might appear as territorial nest-bui
lders in the reproductive period, whereas the shyer ones are likely to
play sneaky and satellite tactics.