Thermoregulatory behavior and temperature gradient perception in a juvenile fish (Poecilia reticulata)

The thermoregulatory behavior of guppies in a temperature gradient was studied under conditions offering one degree of locomotor freedom, in which displacement of the fish was coupled to a change of occupied temperature, and two degrees of locomotor freedom, in which the added dimension allowed for thermally neutral movement, thus uncoupling any obligatory link between displacement and temperature change. More animals failed to thermoregulate in the second than in the first geometrical system (32% vs. 7%); however, the means of the temperature preferenda (Tp) were the same in both gradient configurations and the frequency distributions along the temperature axis were indistinguishable. In both geometrical systems, mean swimming speed along the temperature axis showed well-defined minima coinciding with the Tp. It was shown that the mean components of movement with respect to the thermal and thermally neutral axes both showed minima at Tp. Further analyses of the actual behavior confirm that in the vicinity of Tp the movements of the fish show little dependence on direction. The analyses thus suggest that thermoregulatory movements are not adjusted in response to movement-generated directional information derived from the temperature gradient. The primary determinant of thermoregulatory behavior in fish may require a more complex awareness of the thermal arrangement of the environment than can be furnished by the instantaneous perception of the local gradient structure.