Abstract
The reproductive biology of deep-sea fishes is largely unknown because of the difficulty of behavioral observations in this environment. In this study, the reproductive behavior of the deep-sea snailfish, Careproctus pellucidus, which lives at depths > 200 m, was observed in an aquarium. Fishes were collected at a depth of approximately 300 m in the North Pacific Ocean (36°70′N; 141°00′E) in July and August 2018 and kept for observation until March 2019. We observed that spawning events usually took place between one male and one female. Males defended a spawning substrate against other males and exhibited body-wiggling behavior for both courtship and aggressive display. Females visited the male’s territory and spawned a demersal adhesive egg mass on the substrate. The territorial male then sought the spawned eggs using the filamentous rays in the lower pectoral-fin lobe and released sperm when he located the eggs. Males remained near the spawning substrate after spawning but did not perform any parental care. Notably, sneaking behavior by a non-territorial male was observed in one case; this is the first report of this alternative reproductive strategy (or tactic) in a deep-sea fish. Our study reveals the spawning of C. pellucidus appear to use the mechanosensory lateral line and the chemical sense heavily to adapt to the dim sunlight deep-sea environment.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Takashi Suzuki, J. Suzuki, Takayasu Suzuki, S. Suzuki, and S. Katayose for collection of live fishes. Our appreciation is also extended to Y. Abe (Executive Director, Aquamarine Fukushima) and A. Komoda (General Curator Aquamarine Fukushima) for their valuable advice and discussion, and M. Kuraishi, K. Matsuzaki, M. Kamiunten, and R. Murai (Aquarium Staff) for their assistance during the study. T. Iwasaki (Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries and Marine Science Research Centre) provided us with valuable data. Y. Kai (Kyoto University) led to significant improvement of the manuscript. We sincerely thank S. Awata (Osaka-City University), and H. Kohtsuka (The University of Tokyo) for their valuable advice. Critical reading by two anonymous reviewers significantly improved the manuscript.
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This study was funded by the Marine Science Museum Fukushima.
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TM: Conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, writing—original draft, visualization. KF: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. SO: Investigation. SY: Conceptualization, methodology, resources. TY: Conceptualization, supervision.
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The facility where we had conducted all animal experiments has no stated ethical guidelines for teleost fishes. Therefore, we carried out all experiments in compliance with the ABS/ASAB guidelines for the ethical treatment of animals. Research permission was obtained from Fisheries Cooperative Association of Ibaraki, Japan.
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Male–male competition between territorial male (T-male) and non-territorial male (NT-male)
Courtship behavior by a territorial male (T-male)
Spawning by female and seeking eggs followed by releasing sperm by a territorial male (T-male)
Sneaking behavior by non-territorial male (sneaker); T-male territorial male
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Mori, T., Fukuda, K., Ohtsuka, S. et al. Reproductive behavior and alternative reproductive strategy in the deep-sea snailfish, Careproctus pellucidus. Mar Biol 169, 42 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04028-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04028-9