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Kin recognition and cannibalistic behaviours by adult male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas)

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Abstract

Parental care is an energetically demanding activity that ensures genes are efficiently passed from one generation to the next. According to evolutionary theory, the greatest energetic investment should be directed towards offspring that are most closely related to the parent. Male fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas, provide this parental investment to developing embryos but not newly hatched larvae. Therefore, selection should favour recognition of embryonic kin to ensure energetic expenditure is optimally invested. In this study, adult male fathead minnows were tested using behavioural assays, with egg cannibalism as an endpoint, to determine whether adult males could discriminate between related and unrelated embryos. Egg cannibalism was highest when adult male fathead minnows were presented with unrelated eggs and lowest when presented with eggs fertilized by the test subject (related eggs). The degree of cannibalism was also a function of breeding status. Unrelated males in breeding condition showed an intermediate response between the low cannibalism demonstrated by related males and the high cannibalism demonstrated by unrelated males in a nonbreeding condition. These results suggest that although male fathead minnows can discriminate between unrelated and related embryos, at least some component of parental investment is a simple function of breeding status.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Natalie Carreau, Alyson Laframboise and Rebecca Dietz for their assistance. Funding was provided by Nipissing University and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to GGP. This experiment was conducted in compliance with the Canadian Council of Animal Care guidelines, under approval of Nipissing University’s animal care protocol number 2004-06-17.

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  1. Warren W. Green

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, ON, Canada, N9B 3P4

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Nipissing University, 100 College Drive, Box 5002, North Bay, ON, Canada, P1B 8L7

    Warren W. Green, Reehan S. Mirza & Greg G. Pyle

Authors
  1. Warren W. Green
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  2. Reehan S. Mirza
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  3. Greg G. Pyle
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Correspondence to Warren W. Green.

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Green, W.W., Mirza, R.S. & Pyle, G.G. Kin recognition and cannibalistic behaviours by adult male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Naturwissenschaften 95, 269–272 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0319-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0319-y

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