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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 24, 2026

Boldness, Aggression, and Shoaling Assays for Zebrafish Behavioral Syndromes

Boldness, Aggression, and Shoaling Assays for Zebrafish Behavioral Syndromes

Published on: August 29, 2016

Quorum decision-making in foraging fish shoals.

Ashley J W Ward¹, Jens Krause, David J T Sumpter

¹Department of Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, United Kingdom. ashleyjwward@gmail.com

|March 14, 2012

Summary

Threespine sticklebacks use quorum responses, a decision-making strategy, to find and leave food patches. Group size influences the number of fish needed to trigger collective movement decisions.

Area of Science:

Animal behavior
Collective decision-making
Fish social behavior

Background:

Group-living animals integrate social information for collective decisions.
Quorum responses involve a threshold number of individuals initiating a behavior.
Previous work showed threespine sticklebacks use quorum responses under predation threat.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate quorum responses in threespine sticklebacks for foraging decisions.
To determine if quorum rules govern movement to and from food patches.
To assess the role of group size in quorum-based foraging movements.

Main Methods:

Observing threespine stickleback shoals' movements toward and away from a food patch.
Analyzing movement initiation based on a threshold number of 'initiator' fish.

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Correlating movement decisions with group size and initiator thresholds.

Main Results:

Quorum rules explain movement decisions of sticklebacks to food patches.
Quorum rules also explain stickleback movements away from food patches.
The threshold for collective movement was dependent on the shoal size.

Conclusions:

Threespine sticklebacks utilize quorum responses for efficient foraging.
Collective movement decisions in sticklebacks are modulated by group size.
Quorum sensing is a key mechanism for coordinating group movements in fish shoals.