Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Guppy Simulation

Guppies are colorful because the females want to mate with the brightest male.
In the guppy gallery the fish that i found most interesting was the Poe ilia reticulata from Peru. It's size is 3.5 cm. I picked this fish based appearance because it is a really attractive color or purple and fuchsia. But here is more colors than that as well.
The fish i found most interesting was the Fat Sleeper, also known as Dormitator masculatus. He is from southern North America, Bahamas, and Latin America.
Some habitat conditions that would affect predators would be the Dams that restrict predator movements or cause them to only moving upstream. Only the Rivulus could go into shallow waters because the others cannot survive there. I would recommend a deep pool in a stream because it could host a large population of predators and guppies.

John Endler was a biologist who studied wild guppies in streams.
Guppy Coloration:
Pool 1:Brightly multi-colored with large spots
Pool 2:Medium coloration on body and tail, with medium-sized spots
Pool 3:Drab coloration, very small spots concentrated near tail Predators
Hypothesis:
If the guppies are in an area that restrict predators or restrict the predators movements (like a dam or shallow water), then the bright-brightest guppies would flourish.



Trial 1- Guppy:even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus
Results at 10th generation-
Brightest: 63%
Bright: 15%
Drab: 19%
Drabbest: 3%

Trial 2- Guppy: even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara
Results at 10th generation-
Brightest: 46%
Bright: 44%
Drab: 9%
Drabbest: 0%

Trial 3- Guppy:Even mix Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 2%
Bright: 2%
Drab: 2%
Drabbest: 94%

Trial 4- Guppy: Mostly bright Predators: 30 Rivulus
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 79%
Bright: 13%
Drab: 8%
Drabbest: 0%

Trial 4- Guppy: Mostly Drab Predators: 30 Rivulus, 30 Acara, 30 Cichlid
Results at 10th generation:
Brightest: 0%
Bright: 2%
Drab: 11%
Drabbest: 86%

Summary:
Predators go after the brightly colored fish, but if the predators eat all the vividly colored guppies then there would be non to pass on their color genes. If there is a lack of predators then bright colored guppies would be the initial population.
My hypothesis was correct because the the trials that had all the predators had an initial population of drab-drabbest coloration while the trials the included on one or two types of predators had the initial population of bright-brightest.
I think that “male guppies live in a crossfire between their enemies and their would be mates” means that the benefit of their bright coloration is that females will mate with them, but the loss of the coloration is that they will be the most likely to be eaten.
Guppies in different parts of the streams have different colorations because of the opulation of predators in the are. Also, in some areas predators have restrictive movement so they would not be able to prey on the brightest guppies. Now the brightest guppies can pass on their genes.
I think that the drab guppies will be eaten because they are the only food for the predators. But I think the coloration would change to an even mix.
I think if brightly colored guppies were placed in a stream with many predators then they would become a mix of coloration-brightly colored. Their population will remain in the same range as well.

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