Final Preferred Temperature of Juvenile Three-Spined Stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Abstract

The preferred temperatures of juvenile three-spined stickleback from bodies of freshwater of the White Sea coastal region are studied under experimental conditions. The final preferred temperature in the young-of-the-year is 15.2°C, regardless of the acclimation temperature (11, 16, and 20°C). The increased duration of experiments (10 days) made it possible to track the process of the temperature selection as a whole, rather than observing its particular phases. A comparison of the original results with the literature data reveal possible differences in the temperature characteristics, both in geographically remote populations of the three-spined stickleback and between its freshwater and marine forms.