Cooperative Behaviour in Fishes

Social behavior is a common phenomenon among vertebrates, notably in fish, birds and mammals. It has been evolved within the species purposefully to support effective foraging, predation avoidance and fitness. Although all animals have predilection to live in a group, it is very intense in a few species. In many fish species it is an obligatory behavior, whereas in many other fish species it is opportunistic during group foraging and predator avoidance. Fish express their social behavior by enhancing the locomotor activity. The synchronization in locomotor activity reflects their social behavior based on interaction among members of the same species through sensory cues, like vision and olfaction (pheromones); and also is based on phenotypic characters, such as body size, body color and gender. It has also been reported that day and night cycle affects their social behavior. Study of inter-individual interaction under laboratory conditions often helps to understand intricacies of social behavior. The factors, such as group and group size may influence circadian periodicity in fish under different environmental conditions. In summary, such studies come under the fold of interesting researches in the realm of fish biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2005

Many studies have attempted to explain the evolution of cooperation, yet little attention has been paid to what factors control the amount or kind of cooperation performed. Kin selection theory suggests that more cooperation, or help, should be given by relatives. However, recent theory suggests that under specific ecological and demographic conditions, unrelated individuals must 'pay to stay' in the group and therefore may help more. We tested these contrasting predictions using the cooperatively breeding fish, Neolamprologus pulcher, and found that the degree of work effort by helpers depended on which helping behaviours were considered and on their level of relatedness to the breeding male or female. In the field, helpers unrelated to the breeding male performed more territory defence, while helpers unrelated to the breeding female contributed less to territory defence. In the laboratory, unrelated group members helped more. Our work demonstrates that a number of factors in addition to kinship shape cooperative investment patterns.

edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin), 2020

First, I would like to thank Pawel Romanczuk, who created an unique working environment, whose advice has always helped me and who has supported me and inspired me in every possible way. Also for bringing the scientific world to us so vividly through a variety of conferences and collaborations. I owe many unique encounters, both human and scientific, to the CoCCoN network he initiated. Especially in these times of isolation it is a pleasure to think back. I would like to thank the people who shaped my daily work at the lab. It was a great pleasure for me to work with Winnie Poel, explore the research field of collective behavior and pursued the path to dissertation together. I owe Yinong Zhao many enthusiastic conversations about related scientific fields. Haider Klenz has humorously lit up the office and was a highly valued sitting neighbor. I was fortunate to explore the role of a supervisor with the talented interns Conor McBride, Alexandra (Olenka) Jain and Noam Miller. I would like to thank

Animal Behaviour, 2008

In cooperatively breeding species, members of social groups will risk serious injury or even their lives by actively codefending the communal territory and young in the territory. However, individuals within the group vary in the intensity and frequency of defence. To date little is known about how sex, body size and social status interact with the degree of threat to influence defence activities. To this end, we experimentally manipulated the need for defence in wild groups of the cooperatively breeding cichlid, Neolamprologus pulcher by exposing social groups to four intruder types representing different forms of threat. Intruders were introduced singly (experiment 1) to assess the costs and benefits associated with defence and in tandem (experiment 2) to assess how individuals prioritize perceived threats. Dominant breeders defended more than subordinate helpers, females were more aggressive than males, and female breeders defended more than any other individual in the group. Individual body size, or the difference in body size between intruders and defenders, had no influence on the frequency of defence. Dominant male breeders defended most vigorously against threats to their dominance position, while dominant female breeders showed the highest defence rates to both threats to their position and the security of young to a similar degree relative to all others. Predators evoked the strongest defence responses by subordinate helpers, and conspecific intruders evoked the weakest responses relative to all other intruder types. The results suggest that both costs and benefits have shaped aggressive defence patterns in this cooperatively breeding teleost fish.

Communications biology, 2023

Humans are social creatures, demonstrate prosocial behaviors, and are sensitive to the actions and consequent payoff of others. This social sensitivity has also been found in many other species, though not in all. Research has suggested that prosocial tendencies are more pronounced in naturally cooperative species whose social structure requires a high level of interdependence and allomaternal care. The present study challenges this assumption by demonstrating, in a laboratory setting, that archerfish, competitive by nature, preferred targets rewarding both themselves and their tankmates, but only when the payoff was equal. With no tankmate on the other side of the partition, they exhibited no obvious preference. Finding evidence for prosocial behavior and negative responses to unequal distribution of reward to the advantage of the other fish suggests that in a competitive social environment, being prosocial may be the most adaptive strategy for personal survival, even if it benefits others as well.

Royal Society Open Science, 2015

Current Biology, 2009

A new study has shown that mixed-sex pairs of cleaner fish provide a better — more cooperative — service than singletons despite pairs facing an apparent Prisoner's dilemma.

2019

Many fisheries around the globe preferentially capture large individuals with implications for the evolution of exploited populations. Fisheries-induced evolution may alter collective behavioral phenotypes through individual-level adaptations that affect boldness, swimming speed and tendency to follow social vs. environmental cues. Studying the behavioural mechanisms that give rise to possible changes in shoaling and other collective outputs is challenging in the wild, but first insights into whether intensive and size-selective harvesting could alter collective phenotypes and shoaling can be gathered through experiment of size-selective harvesting conducted in the laboratory. We present a multi-generation harvest selection experiment with zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model species and demonstrate that large size-selective harvesting typical of global fisheries decreases risk-taking behavior of individuals, and surprisingly also decreases shoal cohesion. This counter-intuitive effec...

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2008

these results into more precise models of mobbing behavior will enrich our understanding of the evolution of cooperation, one of the more poorly understood problems in evolutionary biology. Effects of avian mobbing on roost use and diet of powerful owls, Ninox strenua. Anim. Behav. 55, 313-318 3 Flasskamp, A. (1994) The adaptive significance of avian mobbing. V. An experimental test of the 'move on' hypothesis. Ethology 96, 322-333 4 Curio, E. and Regelmann, K. (1986) Predator harassment implies a real deadly risk: a reply to Hennessy.

Communications Biology, 2020

Individuals that forgo their own reproduction in animal societies represent an evolutionary paradox because it is not immediately apparent how natural selection can preserve the genes that underlie non-breeding strategies. Cooperative breeding theory provides a solution to the paradox: non-breeders benefit by helping relatives and/or inheriting breeding positions; non-breeders do not disperse to breed elsewhere because of ecological constraints. However, the question of why non-breeders do not contest to breed within their group has rarely been addressed. Here, we use a wild population of clownfish (Amphiprion percula), where non-breeders wait peacefully for years to inherit breeding positions, to show non-breeders will disperse when ecological constraints (risk of mortality during dispersal) are experimentally weakened. In addition, we show non-breeders will contest when social constraints (risk of eviction during contest) are experimentally relaxed. Our results show it is the comb...

Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 2015

Kin selection theory predicts that cooperation is facilitated between genetic relatives, as by cooperating with kin an individual might increase its inclusive fitness. Although numerous theoretical papers support Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory, experimental evidence is still underrepresented, in particular in noncooperative breeders. Cooperative predator inspection is one of the most intriguing antipredator strategies, as it implies high costs on inspectors. During an inspection event, one or more individuals leave the safety of a group and approach a potential predator to gather information about the current predation risk. We investigated the effect of genetic relatedness on cooperative predator inspection in juveniles of the cichlid fish Pelvicachromis taeniatus, a species in which juveniles live in shoals under natural conditions. We show that relatedness significantly influenced predator inspection behaviour with kin dyads being significantly more cooperative. Thus, our results indicate a higher disposition for cooperative antipredator behaviour among kin as predicted by kin selection theory.

Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 2015

The degree to which group members share reproduction is dictated by both within-group (e.g. group size and composition) and between-group (e.g. density and position of neighbours) characteristics. While many studies have investigated reproductive patterns within social groups, few have simultaneously explored how within-group and between-group social structure influence these patterns. Here, we investigated how group size and composition, along with territory density and location within the colony, influenced parentage in 36 wild groups of a colonial, cooperatively breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher. Dominant males sired 76% of offspring in their group, whereas dominant females mothered 82% of offspring in their group. Subordinate reproduction was frequent, occurring in 47% of sampled groups. Subordinate males gained more paternity in groups located in high-density areas and in groups with many subordinate males. Dominant males and females in large groups and in groups with many r...

Behavioral Ecology, 2005

Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 2000

Associative behaviour is defined as the spatial relationship between an animal (or a group) of a given species and another animal of another species, which is based on a decision by at least one of the two individuals to maintain contact with the other associate, but not for the purpose of feeding on the other. This definition is expanded to include objects and topographic structures (seamount, island, etc) that are not the exclusive habitat of the associated animal.Associations between fish and objects, mammals, topographic structures and other species of fish are reviewed, and the different hypotheses for these associations analysed. Finally, a generalisation of the meeting point hypothesis, fitting all types of association, is proposed. This hypothesis, initially applied to the association between tuna and floating objects, proposes that fish make use of animate or inanimate targets to increase the encounter rate between isolated individuals or small schools and other schools in order to constitute bigger schools that are more efficient to the survival of the species.It is strongly recommended to move from the scientific description of the association to specific experimental studies aimed at identifying ethological processes. This would provide a better understanding of the dynamics of associative behaviour of pelagic species, which in turn would permit better stock assessment and fishery management.