A non-lethal method for the sampling of the gut microbiota in Betta splendens

The Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens has been increasingly used for studies of aggression but methodologies for gut microbiota-aggression studies are lacking for the species. Here, we compared the gut microbial diversity in B. splendens using a conventional lethal gut sampling technique and a non-lethal mouth swabbing method. Bacterial communities were profiled by 16S rRNA gene sequencing targeting the V3-V4 region.