DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrvn0
title: Data for fish foraging and anti-predator escape behavior

description:  Prior experience with predation risk can provide valuable
 information and influence how prey animals trade off between food and
 safety. We examine foraging and refuge use behavior among groups of social
 goldfish (Carrasius auratus) at risk of predation from little egrets
 (Egretta garzetta) for groups containing only individuals that previously
 experienced predators, only naïve individuals, or mixed groups containing
 both experienced and naïve fish. Groups of all-experienced fish consumed
 significantly less food than the all-naïve and mixed groups, and spent the
 least amount of time foraging outside of the refuge. Furthermore, within
 the mixed treatment groups, naïve individuals spent more time foraging
 compared to experienced group members. In terms of survival, the groups
 containing all-naïve members experienced the highest mortality, and
 significantly more naïve fish were captured within the mixed groups.
 Interestingly, the mixed groups experienced overall mortality rates
 similar to the less active all-experienced groups, even though the mixed
 groups foraged more like the all-naïve groups. We found that the mixed
 groups were able to detect the approaching predator significantly earlier
 than the all-naïve groups, which may explain this result. Thus, we show
 that naïve individuals within mixed groups did not reduce foraging
 activity via social learning from experienced group members, but did
 benefit from enhanced collective predator detection. This result
 represents an interesting example of the benefit of sociality and living
 in groups of individuals with different experiences.
description: # Data for fish foraging and anti-predator escape behavior Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrvn0](10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrvn0) ## Description of the
 data and file structure In this experiment, we tested three fish groups
 containing either all fish naive to predation, all fish experienced with
 predation from the day prior, and a mixed group of fish containing half
 naive and half experienced members. The fish then were tested with a live
 egret predator. The fish could choose to hide under a safe refuge that
 offered no food, or forage at the GUD trays in the open water environment.
 ### Files and variables #### File: Experience\_exp\_data.XLSX
 **Description:**  This data set includes data comparing the time (min) the
 egret spent at the pool, the foraging success of the fish (number of
 pellets left in tray - GUDs), the time (min) spent fish groups spent out
 of the refuge, and the number of fish captured by the egret predator (this
 data is further separated to compare the naive and experienced members
 within the "mixed treatment group") for the three fish treatment
 groups: Naive, Experienced, and Mixed. The "group" column
 represents each test day (n = 21). Within each test day, there were 3
 pools ("pool" column). The "Trt" column represents
 treatment for the pool (N=naive, M=mixed, E=experienced).
 "Egret*time" column represents the number of minutes the egret
 spent at the pool. "GUDs" represents how many fish pellets were
 left in the tray at the end of the trial. "Fish*Captured"
 represents how many fish were eaten by the egret predator.
 "Fish_Timeout" represents the number of minutes the fish spent
 foraging outside of the refuge. ## Code/software Microsoft Excel can be
 used to view the data file.