Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

, Volume 24, Issue 4, pp 251–255 | Cite as

Shoaling as an anti-ectoparasite mechanism in juvenile sticklebacks (Gasterosteus spp.)

  • R. Poulin
  • G. J. FitzGerald
Article
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Accepted:

Summary

In laboratory experiments, we tested the hypothesis that by living in larger shoals, juvenile threespine (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and blackspotted (G. wheatlandi) sticklebacks lower their risk of being parasitized by the crustacean ectoparasite Argulus canadensis. An increase in shoal size resulted in a lower average number of attacks received by individual fish, but had no negative effect on the attack performance (attack rate and attack success) of the parasites. In addition, more fish formed shoals and shoal sizes were larger in the presence of parasites. We conclude that ectoparasitism may have been a strong selective factor in the evolution of social behaviour in juvenile sticklebacks.

Keywords

Laboratory Experiment Social Behaviour Attack Rate Individual Fish Gasterosteus Aculeatus 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1989

Authors and Affiliations

  • R. Poulin
    • 1
  • G. J. FitzGerald
    • 1
  1. 1.Départment de BiologieUniversité LavalSte-FoyCanada

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