0000000000189501
AUTHOR
Angela Timpanaro
Nest-mediated parental care in a marine fish: Are large-scale nesting habitats selected and do these habitats respond to small-scale requirements?
Fishes have evolved various reproductive strategies including mechanisms that involve parental care and demersal eggs laid into nests. Symphodus ocellatus has a seasonal reproduction period during which large, dominant males become territorial and build nests with fragments of algae, where they attract females to spawn and provide care to the developing eggs. Based on the hypothesis that the S. ocellatus males choose the reproductive habitat based on some characteristics of the substrate, here we assessed whether, on a coastal area scale, the distribution of this species changes during the reproductive period because of the selection of some suitable sites or substrates, and whether the nes…
Nest building in a Mediterranean wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus): are the algae used randomly chosen or actively selected?
To increase their reproductive success, fish species have evolved various strategies, including both simple processes and more complex mechanisms that involve parental care by nest-building. In Symphodus ocellatus, a species that lives in rocky infralittoral zones of the Mediterranean Sea, during the reproductive period, the male builds a nest within a hole or crevice using fragments of algae and/or sand particles. Data on the nesting activity of wrasses are rare, and previous descriptions regarding the algal composition of nests have provided conflicting results. In this regard, it is unclear whether territorial males actively select algal species for nest construction or algal choice is r…