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Mucus provisioning behavior in teleost fishes: a novel model system for the evolution of secretory provisioning in vertebrates

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Abstract

Across teleost fishes, a wide range of parental care strategies have been observed. However, despite this large variation in parental care behaviors, postnatal nutritional provisioning has rarely been documented in fishes. In other taxa, anecdotal evidence suggests that nutritional provisioning of offspring via mucus secretion by parents may occur, although this phenomenon has received little attention from evolutionary biologists, especially in fishes. To address this knowledge gap, we investigate the intra- and interspecific differences, functions, and the costs and benefits of provisioning behaviors that have potentially evolved independently in different teleost clades. Furthermore, we review and discuss within an ecological and evolutionary context, the anecdotal reports and limited available empirical evidence that shows support for mucus provisioning in teleost fishes.

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Acknowledgments

Prof. Masanori Kohda, Assoc. Prof. Satoshi Awata, and the members of the Maneno Tanganyika Research team and the Animal Sociology Laboratory of Osaka City University provided helpful comments and discussion. Mr. Yusuke Fuke helped with the phylogenetic analysis. Editage (https://www.editage.com) provided English language editing. Dr. L. Alex Jordan and Mr. Shunichi Asamura provided photographs for the manuscript. This paper was improved by the comments and suggestions made by the anonymous reviewers and Editor Dr. Mari Kawaguchi. This study was supported financially by KAKENHI (nos. H17J11490, N19K23765 and N19KK0189 to S.S.) and a JSPS fellowship (to W.S.). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Biology and Geosciences, Graduate School of Science, Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan

    Shun Satoh & Will Sowersby

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  1. Shun Satoh
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Correspondence to Shun Satoh.

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Satoh, S., Sowersby, W. Mucus provisioning behavior in teleost fishes: a novel model system for the evolution of secretory provisioning in vertebrates. Ichthyol Res 68, 1–10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-020-00785-z

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