Fishes exhibit extraordinary diversity in courtship, aggression, parental care, communication, social organization, and sensory behavior, offering powerful systems for identifying the genomic mechanisms underlying behavioral variation and evolution. However, behavioral genomics remains concentrated in a small number of laboratory models, and transferring genomic and functional approaches to ecologically diverse fishes presents substantial challenges in husbandry, behavioral phenotyping, tissue collection, data integration, and experimental validation.

This Collection will present reproducible visual protocols that connect genes, genomes, neural systems, and behavior across fish diversity. Topics may include standardized behavioral assays; experimental design for comparative, population, and quantitative genomic studies; collection of behaviorally relevant tissues; transcriptomic, single-cell, spatial, and epigenomic methods; whole-brain clearing and multiplex in situ hybridization for neuroanatomical mapping; genome editing, transgenesis, and gene expression manipulation; neural imaging and neuroendocrine approaches; and computational workflows integrating behavioral and genomic data. Submissions using freshwater or marine fishes, established or emerging model organisms, and laboratory, field, or mesocosm settings are welcome.

By making organism-specific handling, experimental setups, and analytical workflows visible and reproducible, this Collection will expand access to behavioral genomics and enable rigorous comparative studies of how genomic variation produces behavioral diversity.