Abstract
When approached by males, females of the Amarillo fish (Girardinichthys multiradiatus) perform a behaviour called vibration or they are aggressively challenged. We quantified vibration and assessed whether it compromises the rate of feeding attempts in dyads kept in outdoor enclosures. Male approaches resulted in female vibration and in a reduced feeding rate. Vibration was not evoked by female–female aggression, which was frequent and always ended in the subordinate fleeing from the dominant female. Using a closed respirometer we found that vibration is costly; oxygen consumption of females was greater in the presence of a male (which evoked vibration) than in the presence of a non-familiar female (when no vibration occurred). By recording interactions of females confined in aquaria in the presence and in the absence of males, we confirmed that escaping is the only available response to deal with female aggression. Females kept without males participated in frequent aggressive (even lethal) interactions that did not abate while the subordinate female was in sight of the dominant, and which caused premature births and injuries. Yet in the alternative treatment aggression ceased when a male approached, prompting vibration in both females. Thus, in the Amarillo, in as much as it evokes energetically costly female vibrations, male courtship is an expression of sexual conflict. However, in the absence of males, frequent female aggression potentially annuls the benefits of not vibrating. We propose that a complete appraisal of the consequences of sexual conflict must include an assessment of the costs imposed by intra-sexual interactions.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Daniel Piñero, former director of the Instituto de Ecología, UNAM, for allowing us to use valuable space at the institute. We also thank Alejandro Moyaho for helping us collect the fish. Guillermina Alcaráz kindly advised on respirometric procedures. AV received a scholarship from Fundación UNAM to finish her BSc thesis, on which this work is based. This paper was greatly improved by the comments of anonymous referees. We hereby declare that the experiments carried out as part of the project described in this paper comply with Mexican current legislation on animal welfare.
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Valero, A., Hudson, R., Luna, E.Á. et al. A cost worth paying: energetically expensive interactions with males protect females from intrasexual aggression. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 59, 262–269 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0033-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0033-8