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Fish in larger shoals find food faster

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology volume 10, pages 149–151 (1982)Cite this article

Summary

Experiments on shoaling cyprinids hunting for food on patches in tanks demonstrate and advantage of foraging in a group. Individual goldfish (Carassius auratus) and minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) in a shoal of conspecifics located food more rapidly as shoal size increased from 2 to 20. although shoaling minnows form polarised schools more readily than goldfish, which rarely do so, both species benefited from the trend of speedier food location with increasing group size.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Animal Biology, University College of North Wales, LL57 2UW, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales

    T. J. Pitcher, A. E. Magurran & I. J. Winfield

Authors
  1. T. J. Pitcher
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  2. A. E. Magurran
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  3. I. J. Winfield
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Pitcher, T.J., Magurran, A.E. & Winfield, I.J. Fish in larger shoals find food faster. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 10, 149–151 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300175

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00300175

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