Abstract
Underwater observations conducted in Lake Tanganyika showed that males of a maternal mouthbrooding cichlid, Petrochromis fasciolatus, defended a mating territory for at least several months, but left at approximately noon every day. After the experimental removal of males from their territories, new owners occupied the vacated territories within several days. New owners exhibited higher body-condition factors and fat indices than the original owners. These results suggest that the new owners had not previously occupied a territory, considering the physical exhaustion of owners owing to the energy expenditure on territory maintenance and mating behaviors and a limited time for feeding. Original owners had heavier testes than new owners, despite similar body sizes. This disparity in testis weight suggests that energy investment in testes increases following territory acquisition. Among males that newly occupied a territory during the observation period, larger individuals occupied territories sooner, suggesting that large body size facilitates competition for territory. It is concluded that energy investment in testes is delayed for somatic growth until territory acquisition.
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Acknowledgments
The fieldwork was conducted under the research agreement between the Fisheries Department of Zambia and the Japanese research team “MANENO.” We thank the staff of Lake Tanganyika Research Unit of Fisheries Research Institute, Mpulungu, Zambia, for facilities and assistance during the field work. We are also grateful for technical assistance on drawing of the figures from S. Miyagawa, T. Murakami, and K. Saito. Useful comments on the manuscript were provided by two anonymous referees. H. Ochi participated in this work as a guest researcher of the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University. This study was financially supported by Overseas Scientific Research (no. 04041078) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
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Ochi, H., Takeyama, T. & Yanagisawa, Y. Increased energy investment in testes following territory acquisition in a maternal mouthbrooding cichlid. Ichthyol Res 56, 227–231 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-008-0088-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-008-0088-4