Male behavioral type affects female preference in Siamese fighting fish

There has been growing interest in the causes and consequences of different behavioral types within members of the same species. Male Siamese fighting fish consistently adopt 1 of 3 behavioral strategies (i.e., fighter, lover, or divider) when encountering a male and female conspecific simultaneously. These strategies may carry fitness consequences if female conspecifics attend to these differences and use them when selecting mates. To address this question, female Siamese fighting fish were repeatedly presented with video playback images of males expressing these strategies in a series of preference tests. Subjects were exposed to male stimuli both sequentially and simultaneously. The results suggest that females prefer males using the lover strategy and actively avoid fighter males. This avoidance is found regardless of whether the male stimuli are presented sequentially or simultaneously. Although presentation type did not affect expressed preference, it did influence strength of preference, with females attending more to the divider and lover behavioral types in the simultaneous presentations. This study highlights the importance of using multiple presentation formats when examining mate preference and demonstrates that male behavioral type may influence female choice. In addition, it is one of the first examinations of how male behavioral type may influence female mate choice and suggests that female choice may be a mechanism for generating and/or maintaining differences in behavioral type.