Individuals with divergent personality traits corresponding to stress coping styles have been suggested to differ in behavioural and neural plasticity. We used a model of social defeat stress to assess the coping ability of wild zebrafish selectively bred for boldness/shyness. Behavioural tests were applied to assess parameters such as boldness/exploration, aggressiveness, and displacement behaviour. Gene expression changes in...

Size-selective mortality may evolutionarily alter life-history as well as individual behavioral and physiological traits. Moreover, size-selective mortality can affect group behavioral traits, such as shoaling and collective properties (e.g., shoal cohesion), which are relevant for finding food and reducing risk of predation. Here, we present experimental evidence using selection lines of zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) that were ex...

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are becoming one of the most important model organisms in behavioural neuroscience. It has been shown repeatedly that different zebrafish strains show large behavioural differences. These divergent behavioural profiles may have a genetic basis, but environmental factors and previous experience are also known to greatly affect the behavioural phenotype of zebrafish. It could be expected that behavioural...

Stress and aggression have negative effects on fish welfare and productivity in aquaculture. Thus, research to understand aggression and stress in farmed fish is required. The neuropeptides arginine-vasotocin (AVT) and corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) are involved in the control of stress and aggression. Therefore, we investigated the effect of agonistic interactions on the gene expression of AVT, CRF and their receptors i...