Physical enrichment research for captive fish : time to focus on the DETAILS
Abstract
Growing research effort has shown that physical enrichment (PE) can improve fish welfare and research validity. However, the inclusion of PE does not always result in positive effects and conflicting findings have highlighted the many nuances involved. Effects are known to depend on species and life stage tested, but effects may also vary with differences in the specific items used as enrichment between and within studies. Reporting fine-scale characteristics of items used as enrichment in studies may help to reveal these factors. We conducted a survey of PE-focused studies published in the last 5 years to examine the current state of methodological reporting. The survey results suggest that some aspects of enrichment are not adequately detailed. For example, the amount and dimensions of objects used as enrichment were frequently omitted. Similarly, the ecological relevance, or other justification, for enrichment items was frequently not made explicit. Focusing on ecologically relevant aspects of PE and increasing the level of detail reported in studies may benefit future work and we propose a framework with the acronym DETAILS ( D imensions, E cological rationale, T iming of enrichment, A mount, I nputs, L ighting and S ocial environment). We outline the potential importance of each of the elements of this framework with the hope it may aid in the level of reporting and standardization across studies, ultimately aiding the search for more beneficial types of PE and the development of our understanding and ability to improve the welfare of captive fish and promote more biologically relevant behaviour.
Citation
Jones , N A R , Webster , M M & Salvanes , A G V 2021 , ' Physical enrichment research for captive fish : time to focus on the DETAILS ' , Journal of Fish Biology , vol. 99 , no. 3 , 14773 , pp. 704-725 . https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.14773
Publication
Journal of Fish Biology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-1112Type
Journal item
Rights
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Fisheries Society of the British Isles. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funding: Fisheries Society of the British Isles (GB) (Grant Number(s): PhD Studentship).Collections
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