Broods of attractive three‐spined stickleback males require greater paternal care

Abstract

The relationship between egg number and survival in nests of three-spined sticklebacks Gasterosteus aculeatus was tested in the field. Nests were deprived of paternal care during a variable period by removal of the father while preventing egg predation by protection of the nest by a net. Upon male removal, a number of male traits were quantified. Nest-content variables and embryo survival were assessed at the end of the deprivation period. Proportional egg mortality was significantly positively correlated with the length of the deprivation period, the number of eggs present in the nest and egg size, thus suggesting that nests with more and larger eggs need more paternal care. Males with the most symmetrical ventral spines achieved the highest reproductive success as measured by the number of eggs in the nest. In addition, their nests contained relatively larger eggs. Spine length symmetry correlated with the blue intensity of the eye thus giving females several cues to assess male quality.

Reflectance characteristics are correlated with male condition in a population of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) that has lost the species typical nuptial signal

“…The red signal is comprised predominantly of astaxanthin (a carotenoid pigment) esters (Czeczuga 1980;Wedekind et al 1998) and plays a role in malemale competition for nest sites, female choice of mates and parental defense of offspring. The red signal shows a positive correlation with male body condition (Bakker and Mundwiler 1994) and both field and laboratory results support the contention that redder males make better fathers (Candolin 2000;Bakker et al 2006).…”

To eat or not to eat: egg-based assessment of paternity triggers fine-tuned decisions about filial cannibalism

“…they spent more time fanning with increasing age of the clutch. Providing oxygen by fanning is essential for the survival and the development of the embryos (Van Iersel 1953;Bakker et al 2006a), with older clutches needing more oxygen than younger ones (Reebs et al 1984;Collins & Nelson 1993;Kamler et al 1998). Brood care was also influenced by the males' body condition (BC m2 ).…”

“…Afterwards, the male takes care of the eggs until they hatch, by fanning and cleaning the clutch (removing dead or infected eggs). Here, males adjust their fanning behaviour according to the number of received eggs, indicating their ability to adjust their brood-caring behaviour to the value of the brood (Van Iersel 1953;Bakker et al 2006a). In addition, sneaked fertilizations are a common phenomenon in this species (Jamieson & Colgan 1992;Largiadèr et al 2001;Le Comber et al 2003).…”

Mate-choice copying when both sexes face high costs of reproduction

“…Furthermore, courtship may attract rival males that compete for the courted female (Dzieweczynski and Rowland 2004), or steal fertilizations (Largiadèr et al 2001). Males seldom collect more than 5-10 clutches (Wootton 1976;Smith and Whoriskey 1988;Bakker et al 2006) per breeding cycle, mainly because space in nests is limited and high numbers of eggs lead to an increase of egg mortality (Kraak and Bakker 1998;Bakker et al 2006). As males rarely complete more than 1-2 breeding cycles in their life (Wootton 1976;Bakker and Mundwiler 1994), most males have a relatively small total number of mating partners.…”

“…Males spend time and energy in building the nest, defending the territory, mainly against rival males (e.g. Bakker 1986;Sparkes et al 2007), and caring for the brood Bakker et al 2006). Consequently, males lose body mass during the breeding cycle (Sargent 1985;Smith and Wootton 1999), and often die afterwards (Allen and Wootton 1982).…”