We conducted salinity choice trials with the stenohaline marine species Takifugu snyderi to test their freshwater (FW) entry frequency in relation to starvation. The fish preferred to enter non-natal FW rather than remain in seawater. No relationship was detected between starvation and FW entry behaviour. Our results provide new empirical evidence of a stenohaline fish entering a non-natal osmotic environment. Further research on the entry of stenohaline species such as this one into lethal environments may help determine if this might help promote the evolution of diadromous life histories.
Keywords: behaviour; diadromy; evolutionary origin; osmoregulation; partial migration; salinity.
© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Fish Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Fisheries Society of the British Isles.