Abstract
Three goldfish (Carassius auratus) were trained in a free-choice task of an aquatic version of an eight-arm radial maze. Extra-maze cues but not intra-maze cues were available in Phase 1, both extra-maze and intra-maze cues were removed in Phase 2, and intra-maze cues but not extra-maze cues were introduced in Phase 3. The fish could perform the task reliably without a stereotyped response pattern if they were allowed to utilize either the extra-maze or intra-maze cues. However, in Phase 2 where both extra-maze and intra-maze cues were not available, the fish showed a response strategy to choose the adjacent arms. These results suggest that goldfish can utilize multiple navigation strategies flexibly to perform a radial maze task depending on the availability of visual cues.
