Fix a water temperature, then set the time regime day: light (e.g., 12L:12D). For recording the activity you have to make sure you know about the camera recording and the frame rate of recording (e.g., 1 sec per frame). Because for fish movement recording, the frame rate has to be fast. Fixing the camera is a typical limit according to your experimental design. If you want to check vertical movement, the camera should be set so that all visualization can capture vertically or vice versa for the top view. If you're going to check only for a few hours/ minutes (15 or 30 mins.), the record should be long enough to eliminate the errors.

Data acquisition~ prepare a matrix in Excel (if you are going to check the movement manually by pausing the video). it is very hard and time-consuming. Alternatively, you can use behavior analysis software. After data acquisition, use statistical software for data analysis.

Dear Sutanu,

In addition to the previous message, some tips for carrying out your ethological analyzes with free and open-source software:

For the parameters, many behaviors can be documented, those that I have in mind: feeding behavior, predator avoidance, reproduction, swimming, social interactions, learning, respiratory behavior, activity pattern, avoidance or attractance responses. You can choose criteria from these suggestions. I'll let you look what tests are classicaly used for your biological model.

For fish behaviors that are not movements, I advise you to install the Behavioral Observation Research Interactive Software (BORIS), the documentation and download link are available at this url: https://boris.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Before using it, I advise you to create an ethogram which references the behaviors that you want to analyze

For movement tracking, many options are available to you. One of these options can be Kinovea, a video annotation tool : https://www.kinovea.org/ It features utilities to capture, slow down, compare, annotate and measure motion in videos.

You can also consider using another software: https://www.dgp.toronto.edu/~mccrae/projects/FishTracker/. For fully automatic analysis, you can also use python scripts.

For data analyses, I cannot give advice with the elements mentioned. personally I use R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics: https://www.r-project.org/

You'll want to contact researchers at the OSU Tanguay Lab https://tanguaylab.com/ and the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center https://www.usgs.gov/centers/wfrc/science/lead-scientists-areas-expertise?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects