Abstract

Two amines, serotonin (5HT) and octopamine (OP), have contrasting effects on motor activity in crayfish. The present study describes some effects that are related to agonistic behaviour. Behavioural data and continuous recordings of the intraspecific interactions were taken in dyads of male crayfish. In all dyads, four tension contacts were recorded in sessions of 30 minutes during five serial days; on the sixth day 5HT (0.1 µg/20 g BW; i.c.) or OP (0.1 µg/20 g BW; i.c.) was injected in two groups to dominant crayfish and saline to subordinate crayfish. In other two groups 5HT or OP was injected to subordinate crayfish and saline to dominant crayfish. The frequency of such behavioural patterns differed significantly between dominants injected with 5HT (D5HT) and subordinates injected with OP (SOP), because the number of tension contacts were reduced in D5HT and elevated in SOP. The application of 5HT to subordinate and OP to dominant crayfish did not have any effect on tension contact numbers.

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