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Relatively large males lower reproductive success in female zebrafish

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Abstract

Females can adjust their reproductive effort in relation to their partner’s perceived fitness value. In zebrafish (Danio rerio), large males are typically preferred mating partners. However, females have been observed to reduce their reproductive output with exceptionally large males but it remains unknown whether it is due to sexual harassment or aggressive behavior to establish and maintain dominance. Here, we study the association between relative male size, sexual harassment and dominance behavior, female stress status (stress behaviors and whole-body cortisol concentration), and reproductive success during a 4 day spawning trial. We found female cortisol to correlate negatively with female body size and positively with female dominance behavior. However, male and female behavior as well as female cortisol level were not related to relative male size. Females mating with relatively large males produced more and most of their eggs during the first spawning day, while females with smaller males produced few eggs during the first day but then increased egg production. Despite females produced more eggs when mating with relatively larger males, their eggs had substantially lower fertilization rates compared to females mating with relatively smaller males. Hence, overall, the reproductive fitness was lowest when females mated with a relatively large male. These findings could help to explain the maintenance of male size variation under natural conditions.

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Acknowledgements

We like to thank M. Ebert, A. Voigt, K. Kuntze and T. Arlt for help with animal care and breeding. We also thank K. Knopf and T. Preuer for assisting in cortisol measurements. Finnish guidelines for the care and observation of animals were followed. We thank two anonymous reviewers for the excellent feedback.

Funding

This study received financial support from Adaptfish project funded within the Pact for Innovation and Research to RA and CW, the Besatzfisch project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research to RA (www.besatz-fisch.de), the B-Types project (SAW-2013-IGB-2) to RA, and from Kone Foundation and AXA Research Fund to SUH. DB received funding through the German Research Foundation (DFG; BI-1828/2–1). JA was supported through the Marie Curie grant Fish & Fishers (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, grant no. 327160) funded by the European Union and a Juan de la Cierva Post-doc grant (grant no. FJCI-2014-21239) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness.

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  1. Silva Uusi-Heikkilä

    Present address: Section of Natural Resources and Environment, Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Survontie 9 C, 40520, Jyväskylä, Finland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Genetics and Physiology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Silva Uusi-Heikkilä

  2. Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Müggelseedamm 310, 12587, Berlin, Germany

    Silva Uusi-Heikkilä, David Bierbach, Josep Alós, Patrick Tscheligi, Christian Wolter & Robert Arlinghaus

  3. Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), C/ Miquel Marqués 21, 07190, Esporles, Illes Balears, Spain

    Josep Alós

  4. Division of Integrative Fisheries Management, Albrecht-Daniel-Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstrasse 42, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Robert Arlinghaus

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  1. Silva Uusi-Heikkilä
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Correspondence to Silva Uusi-Heikkilä.

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Uusi-Heikkilä, S., Bierbach, D., Alós, J. et al. Relatively large males lower reproductive success in female zebrafish. Environ Biol Fish 101, 1625–1638 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-018-0808-1

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