brachyistius in captivity, courtship behavior was not documented. Although our laboratory in the past has successfully bred B. Kirschbaum and Schugardt ( Kirschbaum and Schugardt, 2002) reported success in breeding five additional different species of mormyrids, but did not report on courtship signaling. isidori were limited to changes from random discharges to a regularized discharge rate or cessations( Bratton and Kramer, 1989). The few SPIs that did occur during courtship in P. Crawford et al.( Crawford et al., 1986)documented courtship behavior of lab-bred Pollimyrus isidori, but concluded that courtship communication was largely acoustic-based and not through electric discharges as electrical signaling was suppressed during the male's acoustical courtship calls. Kirschbaum and Westby( Kirschbaum and Westby, 1975)reported the first successful breeding of mormyrids under laboratory conditions but did not describe any motor behavior. However, because these experiments were conducted in the field where visibility was poor, the signals could not be correlated with behavior. Hopkins and Bass( Hopkins and Bass, 1981) first described an SPI during courtship, termed `rasp', during their field study on Brienomyrus sp. In spite of this work, little is known about SPIs during courtship behavior of mormyrid fish. We show that some SPIs correlate with specific behavioral acts around the time of spawning. Our study employs new techniques to separate and document SPIs in the context of courtship. We also observed electrical duetting called `rasp matching' during courtship signaling among pairs males and females exchange `rasps' and`bursts', respectively, in alternation. Analysis of frequency of occurrences suggests that some SPI patterns are sex and season specific. Here we describe nine common motor displays and 11 SPIs. Knowing the electrical and motor patterns during courtship allows for further exploration of topics such as mate choice and neural basis of pattern generation in these fish. We have also developed a system of video recording and editing combined with cross correlation analysis to precisely record and view behavior and separate EODs from two individuals in non-breeding and breeding contexts. Through simulating artificial rain conditions, we have successfully induced courtship and succeeded in breeding a mormyrid electric fish( Brienomyrus brachyistius) in the laboratory. Little is known of electric signaling during courtship behavior because of two major difficulties: (1) the fish are not easily bred in captivity and (2) there is no reliable means of separating electric signals from several individuals in natural communication settings. Mormyrid electric fish rely on the waveform of their electric organ discharges (EODs) for communicating species, sex, and social status, while they use the sequences of pulse intervals (SPIs) for communicating rapidly changing behavioral states and motivation.
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