Guidance of groups of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to allow sorting by computer vision

Prior to marketing, ornamental tropical fish are currently sorted, graded and counted manually; a process that is labor intensive, stressful to fish and inaccurate. Manipulation of fish movements at our will is a key element in the development of a device for automatically sorting, grading and counting fish by a computer vision system, and the present study is one step towards the development of such a fish-friendly sorting device. The positive phototactic and rheotactic innate responses of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) were exploited to induce them to swim through transparent pipes or narrow channels, to render them ready for inspection by a computer vision system. Water flow direction and velocity, water level, and illumination were effective in inducing fish to move from one container into the other via a narrow transparent pipe. It was attempted to separate guppies moving in groups into individually spaced fish, by introducing an obstacle into a narrow channel or narrowing the transparent pipe.