Effects of pharmaceuticals on fishbehavior : Oxazepam impact on social preferences and responses onpredation risk (olfactory cue mixture) in guppies

• Main Author: Calvo, Ester
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap 2016
• Subjects: Oxazepam; Behavior; Predator cues; Guppies
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-126098

Effects of oxazepam concerning on social behavior in guppies are still unknown. The purpose ofthis thesis is to investigate if the benzodiazepine oxazepam has effects on fish behavior in terms ofsocial preferences and responses to predation risk using an olfactory cue mixture. After anexposure period of 15 days to 100 μg/l of oxazepam, behavioral experiments were performed overtwo days. Results indicate that oxazepam exposed fish were more social at the beginning of theexperiment, which differ from what was expected and from previous social preferences studies.Moreover, less social behavior was found as a result of combining oxazepam treatment andolfactory cue mixture (predator cues and guppy skin extract) treatment.