Large Scale Behavioral Analysis of Fishgroups System

• Subject Area: Zoology
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 462886202

In nature, the formation of animal groups is extensive and can lead to benefits such as social sharing of information, higher aerodynamic or hydrodynamic efficiency, improved hazard detection, and reduced predation. Life in groups is particularly common in fish, where groups often appear in the form of swarms when individuals stay together for a limited time without polarization or coordination of movements, or in the form of shoals where individual movements are highly polarized and coordinated. We are interested in understanding how the collaborative dynamics and non-reproductive social behaviors emerge in different fish species over the course of their development, and how that development relates to key milestones in physical growth and sensory processing.In the past we have established a virtual reality (VR) system to present social and nonsocial stimuli in a controlled, replicable, and high-throughput fashion. We want to expand these experiments and further compare and validate the data with time-lapse recordings of fish in an enhanced environment context as well as in large space experimental tanks designed to harbor large shoals.To complement the VR Rigs already in use in our research group we herewith apply for aquatic tank systems that function as holding and observation tank alike, allowing for time-lapse recording of different fish species in varying group sizes in enriched environments under the same conditions as the conspecifics kept in compartments within the same module. Behavioral analysis of larger groups, exceeding by size the capacity of such modules, and the study of predator-prey interactions, will be taking place in large experimental tanks, requested here as well. A prototype has been built already and been used successfully in the Couzin lab at the University of Konstanz. Finally, imaging hard- and software are to follow already established systems in the Couzin lab – ensuring compatibility and interoperability.The requested ‘Large Scale Behavioral Analysis of Fishgroups System’ to study the development of visually guided behavior and social responses in different fish and contexts thus builds on a combination of three major instruments: A central piece to the study are aquatic systems allowing the analysis of behavior and ontogeny of fish in enhanced environment. Large experimental tanks will allow to study the behavior of large shoals – also in predator-prey context. Finally, VR arenas will be used to confront fish with defined social and non-social cues. The latter are already present in the Couzin lab and are not part of this application. Additional cameras will be required to provide sufficient recording capacity, acquired footage will be analyzed using advanced visualization software developed in the Couzin lab in the past decade.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: System zur umfassenden Verhaltensanalyse von Fischgruppen
• Instrumentation Group: 9910 Tierställe, Terrarien, Aquarien, Vogelkäfige
• Applicant Institution: Universität Konstanz
• Leader: Professor Iain Couzin, Ph.D.