Abstract:To investigate the effect of landmark treatment on the spatial learning ability of Chindongo demasoni, twenty juvenile C. demasoni with similar body size and good health condition were used as experimental subjects and equally divided into no landmark and landmark treatment. Green artificial aquatic plants served as visual cues in a specialized T-maze during spatial learning training. Each fish received five trials per day, constituting one training cycle. After six consecutive cycles, food rewards were removed for the no landmark treatment, while the landmark was repositioned to the entrance of the incorrect foraging arm for the landmark treatment. The results showed that: 1) in the presence of landmark, with the increase of the number of training sessions, the percentage correct of C. demasoni increased significantly, and the latency to reach the correct foraging area decreased significantly; 2) the motor characteristics of C. demasoni in spatial learning training, such as individual swimming speed, did not change significantly before and after arriving at the correct foraging area. With an increase in training sessions, the individual swimming acceleration of the no landmark treatment before arrival significantly increased; in the presence of the landmark, the individual swimming acceleration of the fish significantly decreased after arriving at the correct foraging area, while the percent time spent on moving increased significantly after reaching the correct foraging area. 3) No statistically significant correlation was found between the brain-to-body ratio of the experimental fish and either the percentage correct in spatial learning training or the latency to reach the correct foraging area during the 21st to 25th training sessions. The results of the study suggest that the C. demasoni possesses spatial learning ability by associating visual cues with food rewards. The presence of landmark during spatial learning enhances the foraging efficiency of the C. demasoni. The changes in locomotor parameters of C. demasoni during spatial learning were not significant, and the swimming frequency increased only after they reached the correct foraging area. In addition, there was no correlation between the brain-to-body ratio and spatial learning ability in the C. demasoni.