Understanding spatio-temporal strategies of adult zebrafish exploration in the open field test

► Here we assess zebrafish open field test (OFT) activity and its temporal patterning. ► Zebrafish adjust the amount of their locomotion to the size of the novel arena. ► Temporal patterning of zebrafish activity is not affected by different novel arenas. ► Sinusoidal oscillation-like temporal patterning in zebrafish activity was observed. ► Zebrafish also established prominent homebases throughout the trials.