Spawning coordination of mates in a shell brooding cichlid

Schütz, Dolores; Heg-Bachar, Zina; Taborsky, Michael; Heg, Dik (2012). Spawning coordination of mates in a shell brooding cichlid. International Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2012, p. 517849. London: Hindawi 10.1155/2012/517849

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Aim. External fertilisation requires synchronisation of gamete release between the two sexes. Adequate synchronisation is essential in aquatic media because sperm is very short-lived in water. In the cichlid Lamprologus callipterus, fertilisation of the eggs takes place inside an empty snail shell, where females stay inside the shell and males have to ejaculate into the shell opening. This spawning pattern makes the coordination of gamete release difficult. Methods. This study examined the synchronisation of males and females during egg laying. Results. The results showed that the male initiates each spawning sequence and that sperm release and egg laying are very well synchronised. 68% of all sperm releases occurred at exactly the same time when the female laid an egg, and 99% of ejaculations occurred within ±5 seconds from egg deposition. On average 95 eggs are laid one by one with intervals of several minutes between subsequent eggs, leading to a total spawning duration in excess of six hours. Conclusions. We discuss this exceptional spawning pattern and how it might reflect a conflict between the sexes, with males attempting to induce egg laying and females extending the egg laying period to raise the chance for parasitic males to participate in spawning.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) > Behavioural Ecology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

UniBE Contributor:

Schütz, Dolores, Heg-Bachar, Zina, Taborsky, Michael, Heg, Dierik Hans

Subjects:

500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)

ISSN:

2090-8032

Publisher:

Hindawi

Language:

English

Submitter:

Factscience Import

Date Deposited:

04 Oct 2013 14:35

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:11

Publisher DOI:

10.1155/2012/517849

PubMed ID:

22928149

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.13973

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/13973 (FactScience: 220694)

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