Male-only parental care, while rare in most animals, is a widespread strategy within teleost fish. The costs and benefits to males of acting as sole carer are highly variable among fish species making it challenging to determine the selective pressures driving the evolution of male-only care to such a high prevalence. We conducted a phylogenetic meta-analysis to examine the costs and benefits of paternal care across fish species. We found no evidence that providing care negatively affects male condition. In contrast with other taxa, we also found limited evidence that male care has evolved as a strategy to improve offspring survival. Instead, we found that males already caring for a brood are preferred by females and that this preference is strongest in those species in which males work harder to care for larger broods. Thus, in fish, investment in offspring care does not constrain a male's mating success but rather augments it, suggesting that the relatively high prevalence of male-only care in fish may be in part explained by sexual selection through female preference for caring males.

中文翻译：

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鱼类父亲护理的成本和收益：荟萃分析

虽然在大多数动物中很少见，但只有雄性的父母照顾是硬骨鱼的普遍策略。雄性作为唯一照顾者的成本和收益在鱼类之间差异很大，这使得确定推动仅雄性照顾发展到如此高流行率的选择压力具有挑战性。我们进行了系统发育荟萃分​​析，以检查跨鱼类的父系护理的成本和收益。我们没有发现任何证据表明提供护理会对男性状况产生负面影响。与其他分类群相比，我们还发现有限的证据表明男性护理已演变为提高后代存活率的策略。相反，我们发现雌性更喜欢已经照顾幼崽的雄性，并且这种偏好在雄性更努力照顾较大幼崽的物种中最为强烈。因此，在鱼类中，