Strains differences in the collective behaviour of zebrafish (Danio rerio) in heterogeneous environment

Abstract

Recent studies show differences in individual motion and shoaling tendency between strains of the same species. Here, we analyse the collective motion and the response to visual stimuli in two morphologically different strains (TL and AB) of zebrafish. For both strains, we observe 10 groups of 5 and 10 zebrafish swimming freely in a large experimental tank with two identical attractive landmarks (cylinders or disks) for one hour. We track the positions of the fish by an automated tracking method and compute several metrics at the group level. First, the probability of presence shows that both strains avoid free space and are more likely to swim in the vicinity of the walls of the tank and the attractive landmarks. Second, the analysis of landmarks occupancy shows that AB zebrafish are more present in their vicinity than TL zebrafish and that both strains regularly transit from one landmark to the other with no preference on the long duration. Finally, TL zebrafish show a higher cohesion than AB zebrafish. Thus, landmarks and duration of the repicates allow to reveal collective behavioural variabilities among different strains of zebrafish. These results provide a new insight into the need to take into account individual variability of zebrafish strains for studying collective behaviour.