General quantitative comparisons of periods are presented in Table n. Mean duration of complete spawning sequences was almost 30 min
longer in the sexually experienced fish but total duration in bouts (lines
3, 4) was remarkably similar in the two groups. The total interval time
between bouts for the experienced fish per recorded sequence was 61.8
min as compared to only 42.5 min for the inexperienced pairs. The maJority
of .the bouts were executed during the spawning period for both
groups. During this period the experienced fish performed an average of
9C5.7 bouts per sequence (84.5% of the spawning sequence bouts), and an
average of 88.8 bouts per sequence (81.4%) of the spawning sequence
bouts) were carried out by the sexually naive pairs. Intervals between
bouts and bout durations were similar during the spawning period. Total
bout duration was only sllghUy longer than total interval time for both
groups.