Skip to main content
Log in

Reduced disease in offspring: A benefit of coloniality in sunfish

  • Published:
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Increased disease and parasitism are a well-documented cost of group living for colonial birds and mammals, but we now show that disease in offspring of fish may be reduced by nesting in colonies. The aquatic fungusSaprolegnia sp., which is a common cause of egg mortality among freshwater fishes, is more prevalent in the nests of solitary than colonial male bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Moreover, fungal infection decreases with nest density in colonies. This may be due in part to a behavioural advantage since colonial males can devote less time to defending eggs and more time to fanning them, which reduces fungal infection. In addition, we demonstrate experimentally that solitary nests become infected at higher rates than colonial nests, even in the absence of parental males. This suggests that colonies are encountered by spores at a lower rate and/or that the large number of nests in colonies dilutes the number of fungal spores per nest. Through one or all of these mechanisms, egg mortality in colonial nests is lowered significantly. Therefore, in some cases, disease may select for group living.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alexander RD (1974) The evolution of social behaviour. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 5:325–383

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arnqvist G, Byström P (1991) Disruptive selection on prey group size: a case for parasitoids? Am Nat 137:268–273

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bietz BF (1980) The adaptive significance of territorial aggregation in longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis peltastes Cope). PhD dissertation, University of Western Ontario, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown CR, Brown MB (1986) Ectoparasitism as a cost of coloniality in cliff swallow (Hirundo pyrrhonota). Ecology 67:1206–1218

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlander KD (1977) Handbook of freshwater fishery biology, vol 2. Iowa State University Press, Ames

    Google Scholar 

  • Claussen JE (1991) Annual variation in the reproductive activity of a bluegill population: the effects of clutch size and temperature. MSc thesis, University of Toronto, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman RM, Gross MR, Sargent RC (1985) Parental investment decision rules: a test in bluegill sunfish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 18:59–66

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman RM, Fischer RU (1991) Brood size, male fanning effort and the energetics of a non-shareable parental investment in bluegill sunfish,Lepomis macrochirus (Teleostei: Centrarchidae). Ethology 87:177–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Dominey WJ (1981) Anti-predator function of bluegill sunfish nesting colonies. Nature 290: 586–588

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dupuis HMC, Keenleyside MHA (1989) Reproductive success of nesting male longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis peltastes). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 23:109–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folt CL (1987) An experimental analysis of costs and benefits of zooplankton aggregation. In Kerfoot WC, Sih A (eds) Predation: direct and indirect impacts on aquatic communities. University Press of New England, Hanover, pp 300–314

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster SA (1989) The implications of divergence in spatial nesting patterns in the geminate Caribbean and Pacific sergeant major damselfishes. Anim Behav 37:465–476

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeland WJ (1976) Pathogens and the evolution of primate sociality. Biotropica 8:12–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross MR (1980) Sexual selection and the evolution of reproductive strategies in sunfishes (Lepomis: Centrarchidae). PhD dissertation, Salt Lake City, University of Utah

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross MR, MacMillan A (1981) Predation and the evolution of colonial nesting in bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 8:163–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross MR, Nowell WA (1980) The reproductive biology of rock bass,Ambloplites rupestris (Centrarchidae), in Lake Opinicon, Ontario. Copeia 1980:482–494

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton WD (1971) Geometry for the selfish herd. J Theor Biol 31:295–311

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoogland JL (1979) Aggression, ectoparasitism, and other possible costs of prairie dog (Sciuridae,Cynomys spp.) coloniality. Behaviour 69:1–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoogland JL, Sherman PW (1976) Advantages and disadvantages of bank swallow (Riparia riparia) coloniality. Ecol Monogr 46:33–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Iersel JJA van (1953) An analysis of the parental behaviour of the male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.). Behaviour Suppl 3:1–159

    Google Scholar 

  • Jennings MJ, Philipp DP (1992) Female choice and male competition in longear sunfish. Behav Ecol 3:84–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Loiselle PV (1977) Colonial breeding by an African substratum-spawning cichlid fish,Tilapia zillii. Biol Behav 2:129–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Manly BFJ (1991) Randomization and Monte Carlo methods in biology. Chapman and Hall, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Margolis L, Esch GW, Holmes JC, Kuris AM, Schad GA (1982) The ecological terms in parasitology (report of an ad hoc committee of the American Society of Parasitologists). J Parasitol 68:899–902

    Google Scholar 

  • Møller AP (1987) Advantages and disadvantages of coloniality in the swallow,Hirundo rustica. Anim Behav 35:819–832

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan MJ, Godin JG (1985) Antipredator benefits of schooling behaviour in a Cyprinodontid fish, the banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus). Z Tierpsychol 70:236–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Poulin R, Fitzgerald GJ (1989) Shoaling as an anti-ectoparasite mechanism in juvenile sticklebacks (Gasterosteus spp.). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 24:251–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rasmussen JB, Downing JA (1988) The spatial response of chironomid larvae to the predatory leechNephelopsis obscura. Am Nat 131:14–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rice WR (1989) Analyzing tables of statistical tests. Evolution 43:223–225

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubenstein DI, Hohmann ME (1989) Parasites and the social behaviour of island feral horses. Oikos 55:312–320

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott WB, Crossman EJ (1979) Freshwater fishes of Canada. Bull Fish Res Bd Canada 184

  • Shields WM, Crook JR (1987) Barn swallow coloniality: a net cost for group breeding in the Adirondacks? Ecology 68:1373–1386

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith SN, Armstrong RA, Rimmer JJ (1984) Influence of environmental factors on zoospores ofSaprolegnia diclina. Trans Br Mycol Soc 82:413–421

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith SN, Armstrong RA, Springate J, Barker G (1985) Infection and colonization of trout eggs by Saprolegniaceae. Trans Br Mycol Soc 85:719–724

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RR, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry. Freeman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Thresher R (1984) Modes of reproduction in reef fishes. TFH Publications, Neptune City

    Google Scholar 

  • Treisman M (1975) Predation and the evolution of gregariousness. I. Models for concealment and evasion. Anim Behav 23:779–800

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner GF, Pitcher TJ (1986) Attack abatement: a model for group protection by combined avoidance and dilution. Am Nat 128:228–240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wrona FJ, Dixon RWJ (1991) Group size and predation risk: a field analysis of encounter and dilution effects. Am Nat 137:186–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zoran MJ, Ward JA (1983) Parental egg care behavior and fanning activity for the orange chromide,Etroplus maculatus. Environ Biol Fish 8:301–310

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Côté, I.M., Gross, M.R. Reduced disease in offspring: A benefit of coloniality in sunfish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 33, 269–274 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02027124

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02027124

Key words

Navigation