Efeito do stressor moderado sobre o desafio social e o crescimento na tilália-do-nilo

In natural environments, animals have to deal with numerous and constant challenges, being exposed to different stressors. Once the stressor is mild and of short duration, the answer to this environmental information is an adaptation that allows the animal immediately respond to a threatening situation. Also, keep the animals in environments that offer lower stress conditions you can improve your growth rate. However, more intense and long lasting stressors may trigger to a physiological condition known as distress. Artificial environments, in other hand, can provide a lack of stimuli and cause monotone, also considered to be detrimental to the animal. Keep the animals under mild stressors conditions are, therefore, to maintain adaptive features of the animal, which is a condition that increases the readiness to social challenge and improve individual's welfare. Thus, our aim in this study was to test the effects of mild stressors on the social challenge and welfare in fish. For this, 34 male adults of the fish Nile tilapia were isolated and subjected to three treatments: a) a situation of monotone (N = 13): absence of new stimuli in the environment; b) a situation of intense stress (N = 12): provided by individual containment; and c) a situation of mild stress (N = 9): disturbance in the environment. Video records of five minutes each were filmed twice a day, (9h and 14h) during the presentation of the stressors to the fish, to quantify the ventilatory rate, the plasma cortisol levels and the specific growth rate. We also evaluated the animal's response to the social challenge, provided by a mirror test, recorded during 10 minutes. Regarding the growth rate, we observed that situation of mild stress increased fish growth, whereas monotone and intense stress situations had decreased their growth rate. Agonistic interactions increased in situations of mild stress, remained stable in conditions of intense stress and decreased in...Em ambientes naturais os animais são confrontados com diferentes estressores. Se o estressor é moderado e de curta duração, a resposta às informações ambientais é uma adaptação que permite que o animal responda imediatamente a uma situação ameaçadora. Além disso, manter os animais em ambientes que lhe ofereçam menores condições de estresse, por demandarem um menor gasto energético, pode melhorar sua taxa de crescimento. No entanto, estressores mais intensos podem desencadear um estado patológico conhecido como distresse que pode ser prejudicial a sua fisiologia e comportamento. O ambiente artificial, por sua vez, pode ser desprovido de novos estímulos, provocando monotonia igualmente considerada prejudicial ao animal. Assim, manter os animais sob condições de estressores moderados, que mantenham as características adaptativas ao animal seria uma condição que aumentaria sua prontidão ao desafio social e o seu crescimento. Dessa forma, nosso objetivo foi testar os efeitos do estressor moderado sobre o desafio social e o crescimento em peixes. Para isso 45 machos adultos de tilápia-do-nilo foram isolados e submetidos a três tratamentos: Situação de ambiente monótono (N = 13): ausência de estímulos novos no ambiente; Situação de estressor intenso (N = 12): confinamento; Situação de estressor moderado (N=9): perturbação no ambiente. Foram realizadas filmagens de 5 minutos duas vezes ao dia (9h e 14h) durante a apresentação aos estressores para quantificarmos a taxa de batimento opercular que foi utilizada como indicador de estresse assim como os níveis de cortisol plasmático e a taxa de crescimento específico. Além disso, foi avaliada a resposta do animal ao desafio social representado pelo teste do espelho durante o qual foram realizadas filmagens de 10 minutos. Em relação a taxa de crescimento observamos que situações de estressores moderados aumentaram o crescimento...Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Water temperature affects aggressive interactions in a Neotropical cichlid fish

<div><p>ABSTRACT Changes in water temperature may affect the aggressive behavior of aquatic organisms, such as fish, either by changing some physiological mechanisms or by increasing the probability of encounters between individuals as a result of variation in their swimming activity. In our study, we evaluated the influence of increasing and decreasing temperature on the aggressive behavior of the Neotropical cichlid fish Cichlasoma paranaense. Firstly, we tested the critical thermal maximum (CTMax) tolerated by this species. Then, we tested the effect of decreasing or increasing the water temperature in 6o C (starting at 27° C) on the aggressive interactions of fish under isolation or housed in groups. We found a CTMax value of 39° C for C. paranaense. We also observe that a 6° C decrease in water temperature lowers swimming activity and aggressive interactions in both isolated and group-housed fish, as expected. On the other hand, the increase in temperature had no effect on the fish’s aggressive behavior, neither for isolated nor for grouped fish. We concluded that C. paranaense shows high tolerance to elevated temperatures and, in turn, it does not affect aggressive behavior. Nevertheless, we cannot dismiss possible effects of elevated temperatures on aggressive interactions over longer periods.</p></div