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Locomotor behaviour of the black bullhead, Ictalurus melas (Rafinesque) and brown bullhead, Ictalurus nebulosus (Le Sueur) Troup, Victoria M.

Abstract

The locomotor patterns of black and brown bullhead were studied in an electronically monitored fish tank and cinemato-graphically under constant environmental conditions. The size of turns, handedness, turning frequency, distance between turns, and velocity were computed and compared where possible with existing information for goldfish and other species. Two areas of the tank were considered--the central region and a strip around the periphery. Turning frequency and velocity were the least stable of the parameters studied and therefore perhaps the most useful as indicators of locomotor response to external stimuli. Handedness became more pronounced as the subjects approached the tank walls and as velocity increased, turn size decreased.

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