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Reversed sex change by widowed males in polygynous and protogynous fishes: female removal experiments in the field

Naturwissenschaften volume 98, pages 1041–1048 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

Sex change, either protogyny (female to male) or protandry (male to female), is well known among fishes, but evidence of bidirectional sex change or reversed sex change in natural populations is still very limited. This is the first report on female removal experiments for polygnous and protogynous fish species to induce reversed sex change in the widowed males in the field. We removed all of the females and juveniles from the territories of dominant males in the cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus (Labridae) and the rusty angelfish Centropyge ferrugata (Pomacanthidae) on the coral reefs of Okinawa. In both species, if new females or juveniles did not immigrate into the territories of the widowed males, some of them emigrated to form male–male pairs. When a male–male pair formed, the smaller, subordinate partner began to perform female sexual behaviours (n = 4 in L. dimidiatus; n = 2 in C. ferrugata) and, finally, released eggs (n = 1, respectively). Thus, the reversed sex change occurred in the widowed males according to the change of their social status. These results suggest that such female removal experiments will contribute to the discovery of reversed sex change in the field also in other polygnous and protogynous species.

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Acknowledgements

The Sesoko Station of the Tropical Biosphere Research Center at the University of the Ryukyus provided the facilities for the fieldwork. We are grateful to Philip Munday, Yoichi Sakai, Tomoki Sunobe and three anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments on the manuscript. The research presented here complies with the current laws of Japan and the guideline of the Japan Ethological Society. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 21570026) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of International Liberal Studies, Chukyo University, Nagoya, 466-8666, Japan

    Tetsuo Kuwamura

  2. Transdisciplinary Research Organization for Subtropics and Island Studies, University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, 903-0213, Japan

    Shohei Suzuki

  3. Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, Nagasaki, 851-2213, Japan

    Tatsuru Kadota

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  1. Tetsuo Kuwamura
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  2. Shohei Suzuki
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  3. Tatsuru Kadota
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Correspondence to Tetsuo Kuwamura.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Kuwamura, T., Suzuki, S. & Kadota, T. Reversed sex change by widowed males in polygynous and protogynous fishes: female removal experiments in the field. Naturwissenschaften 98, 1041–1048 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0860-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0860-6

Keywords

  • Bidirectional sex change
  • Reversed sex change
  • Polygyny
  • Mate removal
  • Social status
  • Coral reef fish