Ontogeny of zebrafish behaviors: comparative evaluation of locomotor, social and anxiety parameters in larval, juvenile and adult stages.

Overview

1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Medicina e Ciências da Saúde, Escola de Medicina, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul,Porto Alegre, Brazil
2. Laboratório de Neuroquímica e Psicofarmacologia, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida, Porto Alegre, Brazil
3. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Celular e Molecular, Escola de Ciências da Saúde e da Vida, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul,Porto Alegre, Brazil

Abstract

Zebrafish are a prominent model for investigating behavior and development. However, most behavioral studies have primarily focused on larval and adult stages. The juvenile stage—a critical period of neural and behavioral maturation—has been insufficiently explored, partly because standardized methods for evaluating behavior in different ages are not available. Here we present a behavioral platform adapted for cross-stage assessments and provide an initial characterization of juvenile zebrafish behavior. Locomotion, anxiety, social interaction and scototaxis were evaluated. Our findings reveal developmental stage-specific differences in juvenile zebrafish locomotion, such as increased mobility and reduced erratic movements, along with a steady and progressive increase in social preference from late larval to the adult stage. Scototaxis reversal was also found to be one of the first major behavior transitions, occurring early in the larval stage. These results establish juveniles as a transitional phase with distinct phenotypes and support previous hypotheses that a behavioral metamorphosis accompanies morphological changes of juveniles in these species. Furthermore, this study establishes a foundation for longitudinal behavioral analyses, with the standardization of tests enabling further studies on neurodevelopmental disorders, pharmacological interventions and behavioral ontogeny.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

• osf:4an63, at OSF; found in “Data availability”

Data availability

The data for all experiments are available at https://osf.io/4an63/.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 2 keywords, 9 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 59 references.

Cite

This paper

Petersen, B. D., Rodrigues, G., Liriel, K., Ferreira, L., & Bonan, C. D. (2026). Ontogeny of zebrafish behaviors: comparative evaluation of locomotor, social and anxiety parameters in larval, juvenile and adult stages. Lab animal, 55(5), 172-180. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-026-01712-x

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