Final Preferred Temperature of Juvenile Three-Spined Stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The preferred temperatures of juvenile three-spined stickleback from bodies of freshwater of the White Sea coastal region are studied under experimental conditions. The final preferred temperature in the young-of-the-year is 15.2 degrees C, regardless of the acclimation temperature (11, 16, and 20 degrees C). The increased duration of experiments (10 days) made it possible to track the process of the temperature selection as a whole, rather than observing its particular phases. A comparison of the original results with the literature data reveal possible differences in the temperature characteristics, both in geographically remote populations of the three-spined stickleback and between its freshwater and marine forms.