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Aggression and fighting ability are correlated in the swordtail fish Xiphophorus cortezi: the advantage of being barless

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Abstract

Males of the swordtail fish Xiphophorus cortezi are polymorphic for the pigment pattern vertical bars. Previous studies indicate that barred males exhibit higher levels of aggression towards males with bars than those without, while barless males fail to exhibit differential levels of aggression to either morph. In this study I matched barred and barless males for size and paired them in dyadic contests in order to determine if either morph was more dominant and if so, if dominance was the result of higher aggression levels. I found that barless males had higher bite frequencies and were able to win a majority of the contests while barred males consistently escalated to biting first, even though in most cases they were ultimately the losers. In order to determine whether the observed aggression levels and fighting abilities were inherent to being barless or a consequence of responses to the bars themselves, the dyads were re-paired once after barless males were given temporary bars and once after barred males had their bars removed. Thus, each morph encountered his opponent in both a barred and barless state. Regardless of bar state, naturally barless males continued to be more aggressive and more dominant than their barred counterparts. In addition, naturally barred males only won contests in which they bit more. These results indicate that for this species, aggression is an important component of winning contests when opponents are roughly the same size. As a result, naturally barless males as a whole appear to have higher resource holding potential (RHP) than naturally barred males of the same size because of their greater aggression levels.

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Acknowledgements

I am particularly indebted to Molly Morris for her support and suggestions throughout all phases of this project. I thank Winfried Just, Donald Miles, Willem Roosenburg, and Mathew White for valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. I also thank the Republic of Mexico for permission to collect fish (permit no. DAN02031). This research was supported by NSF grants to J.A. Moretz and M.R. Morris (IBN0309025) and M.R. Morris (IBN9983561), an Ohio University Student Enhancement Award to J.A. Moretz, an Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grant to J.A. Moretz, and by the Department of Biological Sciences at Ohio University. All experiments comply with current laws of the United States and with the Animal Care Guidelines of Ohio University (Animal Care and Use approval L01-01)

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  1. Jason A. Moretz

    Present address: Department of Biology, Indiana University, 1001 E. 3rd Street, 142 Jordan Hall, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, 45701, USA

    Jason A. Moretz

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Correspondence to Jason A. Moretz.

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Communicated by J. Krause

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Moretz, J.A. Aggression and fighting ability are correlated in the swordtail fish Xiphophorus cortezi: the advantage of being barless. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 59, 51–57 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0008-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0008-9

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