Zohar Ibarra

• PhD
• Researcher at CONACYT-UAN-CENITT

Cortisol is the main corticosteroid hormone involved in the regulation of stress status in teleost fish and a recognized biomarker of stress, whose plasma concentration increases significantly in response to a perceived hazard situation. Traditional methods to quantify cortisol levels are usually performed through blood extraction, but this approac...

Latin America (LATAM) plays an important role in the world's production of aquatic animals and is the second most productive region in the world. Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Perú contribute 87% of LATAM aquaculture production. The fish welfare in aquaculture is of increasing public concern globally, and LATAM is no exception, grow...

Stress coping styles (SCS) are defined as a coherent set of individual physiological and behavioural differences in stress responses that are consistent across context and over time. Nowadays, an increased attention has been paid to fish welfare in aquaculture production and to consistent behavioural response to stress in captivity, since these asp...

Identifying Stress Coping Styles (SCS) in new species of interest for aquaculture has important implications for its future domestication and adaptation to captivity. Individual variability allows to select the potential positive characteristics for fish production. The main aim of this study was to identify phenotypic individual differences and ch...

Aim of study: To describe the common behaviour of flathead grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) under rearing conditions. Area of study: Tepic, Mexico. Material and methods: Behaviours exhibited by mullets were videorecorded with submersible cameras installed inside of three tanks. A total of 690 min per day (07:30 - 18:30 h) were recorded per tank durin...

The genus Amphiprion , which species are typically known as clownfish or anemone fish, are among the most commercialized marine ornamental fish species in the world. The present study evaluated three commercial aquaculture diets (A = 40% protein and 9% of crude fat, B = 45% protein and 14% of crude fat, C = 38% protein and 6% of crude fat) on the g...

A feeding trial was carried out to evaluate the utilization of residual nutrients from shrimp farming wastes (SFW) as co-feed in juvenile grey mullets Mugil cephalus. Four treatments were designed to offer shrimp farming wastes in different proportions as feed. The first treatment (control) consisted of feeding the entire daily portion with only co...

A feeding trial was carried out to evaluate the utilization of residual nutrients from a shrimp farming wastes as co-feed in different proportions in juvenile grey mullets. Four treatments were designed offering shrimp farming wastes at 0, 33, 66, and 100%. The 4 % of feed respecting the total biomass of each experimental tank was offered daily. Th...

This research described the common behaviour of grey mullet (Mugil cephalus) under rearing conditions. The different behaviours exhibited by mullets were videorecorded with submersible cameras installed inside of three tanks. A total of 690 minutes per day (07:30-18:30 hours) were recorded per tank during a week. Afterwards, an ethogram was elabora...

Durante 115 días, se evaluó una dieta comercial (control T0:6% lípidos) y tres dietas experimentales con diferentes inclusiones de lípidos T1:7%, T2:11% y T3:14%, sobre el comportamiento reproductivo del pez payaso tomate Amphiprion frenatus. Se seleccionaron 48 ejemplares, con peso y longitud promedio de 2,79 ± 1,09 g y 5,02 ± 0,65 cm, distribuido...

A nivel mundial, se está evaluando el bienestar en peces, mediante técnicas no invasivas como el monitoreo del comportamiento por videograbaciones y la respuesta a situaciones generando un estrés en los animales o EAE. Este documento revisa los principios y métodos básicos y más comunes utilizados en acuicultura para evaluar los EAE y su impacto so...

En esta investigación, se estudió el comportamiento habitual de juveniles de lisa adaptados al cautiverio, el cual se clasificó en una categoría de “actividad” con cuatro patrones comportamentales (descanso, normal, alta y frotar) y una categoría de “alimentación” (fondo y superficie).

Individual animals commonly adopt different stress coping styles that have been shown to impact reproductive success and differ between sexes (female/male) and origin (wild/hatchery). Hatchery reared Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) exhibit a behavioural reproductive dysfunction and a complete failure to spawn viable eggs. Hence, the present st...

The life cycle of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) is not closed in captivity due to a reproductive dysfunction related to the lack of participation of cultured male breeders in the courtship. To discern a possible solution to this social reproductive dysfunction, the main objective of this study was to determine the effect of the presence of s...

Individuals differ in how they cope with stressful situations along a behavioural continuum, being proactive and reactive at the extremes of this continuum. Proactive individuals are usually bold, highly active and take risks, while reactive organisms are generally shy, exhibit low activity and avoid risky situations. Definitions of stress coping s...

In fish, proactive and reactive individual stress copying styles (SCS) have been used to resolve variation in molecular expression data. Stress coping styles have been previously described in several stages of Solea senegalensis by validating for the species the use of standard behavioural screening tests. The present study aimed to link behavioura...

The present study investigated the relationship between reproductive success and stress‐coping styles in gilthead seabream Sparus aurata in captivity. To characterise stress‐coping styles, a total of 22 breeders were submitted to three different individual‐based tests, one group‐based test and post‐handling glucocorticoid quantification. To assess...

Weekly gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) injections were used to induce spawning in paired male and female meagre (Argyrosomus regius) with a weekly rotation of the males, in order to produce a large number of families, as a method to facilitate selective breeding programs. Two different broodstocks were used (HCMR and IRTA), with fema...

Dominance is defined as the preferential access to limited resources. The present study aimed to characterise dominance in a non-aggressive flatfish species, the Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) by 1) identifying dominance categories and associated behaviours and 2) linking dominance categories (dominant and subordinate) with the abundance of s...

Experimental tank set up used for the place preference test (with sand) in pairs. A Preferred area (sand) and B white tiles forming a false bottom characterized the novel conditions. C Water inlet. D Water outlet. (TIF)

Spearman’s correlations from the three variables “Approaches, SAA and RTH” with feeding. (**) correlation was significant P < 0.05. (TIF)

Raw data of preliminary results in dyadic pairs of early Senegalese sole juveniles. (XLSX)

Classification of the different variables in groups according to Kendall’s concordance coefficient (W) for every group. (*P < 0.05) level of significance. (DOCX)

Group experimental tank set up used for feeding response and point feed delivery. A PVC tube to deliver the food. B Water Inlet. C Water Outlet. Different position areas (1–6) were shown by point lines. (TIF)

Principal component analysis of the different behaviours registered during the “feeding response test” in pairs. The three variables “Approaches, SAA and RTH” were grouped together and explained the 53% of the variance of the data. KMO (0.667), Bartlett’s test (P < 0.05) and X2 (133.523). (TIF)

Principal component analysis of the different behaviours registered during the feeding dominance test and place preference test (sand) in pairs. The three variables “Approaches, SAA and RTH” and the “TF and last” explained the 56% of the variance of the data in two different components. KMO (0.6), Bartlett’s test (P < 0.05) and X2 (116.806) (SPSS 1...

This study showed the possible linkage between Stress coping styles and gene transcription.

The aim of this work was to characterize stress coping styles of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) juveniles and breeders and to select an operational behavioural screening test (OBST) that can be used by the aquaculture industry to classify and select between behavioural phenotypes in order to improve production indicators. A total of 61 juveni...

The aim of this work was to characterize stress coping styles of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) juveniles and breeders and to select an operational behavioural screening test (OBST) that can be used by the aquaculture industry to classify and select between behavioural phenotypes in order to improve production indicators. A total of 61 juveni...

Por primera vez se describen parámetros de dominancia en el lenguado a diferentes recursos limitados.

The present study aimed to describe the reproductive behaviour of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) in captivity. Twenty-four mature gilthead seabream, divided in two tanks, were utilized for the present study. Reproductive behaviour was recorded using submersibles cameras. A total of 67 spawning events were analysed. The mean duration time that gi...

The culture of Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) has attracted investment during the economic crisis (2008-2013) (Howell et al., 2011). However, expansion has been limited as broodstock reared in captivity, G1 generation, present a complete reproductive failure and absence of successful spawning. The failure has been attributed to G1 males, whic...

El lenguado senegalés es una especie comercialmente importante en el sur de Europa. No obstante, los machos G1 presentan disfunciones reproductivas relativas al comportamiento. Se ha establecido que los peces afrontan las situaciones estrés de forma variable. En el presente estudio se analizaron 6 pruebas para identificar el tipo de afrontamiento a...

The morphological structure and morphology of the olfactory organs in a seawater flatfish, Solea senegalensis, has been analysed. This fish is asymmetric, there were two nasal openings, one is located in dorsal part (eye side) and the other one is located in ventral part (blind side). A pair of olfactory rosettes is lodged in the depression called...

The term stress coping styles is widely used in various ethological areas in order to define the “individual variation” in behaviour and physiology of organisms confronted with a stressor. It has been established that fish and others vertebrates, including humans, exhibit two main stress response behaviours: proactive and reactive. Proactive organi...

The standardization and validity of a biopsy technique for the assessment of the ovarian development of the spotted rose snapper, Lutjanus guttatus (Steindachner, 1869), was studied. Ovarian oocytes at different tages were present along the length of the ovaries. Late vitellogenic oocytes are distinguished by their opacity under transmitted light....

The present study described the spawning behaviour of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), an important quaculture species. Observations were made over a month, of 24 seabream held in 2x18m 3 tanks (7 females and 5 males tank­1), utilizing submerged video cameras. The seabream spawned daily usually from 08:00­11:00 and eggs were collected from 11:00–...

Benzocaine, 2-phenoxyethanol and MS-222 were tested as anaesthetics for several handling procedures with spotted rose snapper Lutjanus guttatus broodstock. Significant differences in time for induction and recovery were found with specific doses, as well as a direct correlation between the dose and the induction time. Each procedure demanded specif...

Benzocaine, 2-phenoxyethanol and MS-222 were tested as anaesthetics for several handling procedures with spotted rose snapper Lutjanus guttatus broodstock. Significant differences in time for induction and recovery were found with specific doses, as well as a direct correlation between the dose and the induction time. Each procedure demanded specif...