Teaching wild redbelly dace novel predator cues

Abstract

Alarm cues in fish have been shown to cause anti-predator responses. Although it has been shown that fish can be taught novel predatory cues in laboratory work, it has yet to be demonstrated in the field. In this study we attempt to teach northern redbelly dace in Deming Lake the alarm cue of the yellow perch, a predatory fish that does not occur in Deming Lake. First, perch-naïve dace were tested for response to perch alarm cue. Then they were exposed to a mixture of perch and dace alarm cue and their response to perch alarm cue was re-evaluated the following day. There were no significant differences in fish response to perch alarm cue from the first to the third day. The study showed that it can be difficult to teach a large population of fish a novel predatory cue.