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<p>Parental care has a direct and beneficial effect on parental fitness. An important question regarding the evolution of parental care is why parental roles and the amount of care invested are characterized by sexual bias. In species that undertake biparental care, in addition to sex-dependent factors, dominant relationships within pairs are predicted to influence parental roles, although this has rarely been assessed. In the anemonefish, <i>Amphiprion clarkii</i>, females are generally larger than their mates. We discovered a population in which the body-size differences within pairs varied, with males sometimes exceeding females. Using this anemonefish population, we sought to determine whether parental roles and the amount of care invested by males and females were determined by sex or body size in the breeding pairs. We found that males spent more time caring for the clutch and attacking egg predators than females, even when the size of the sexes was reversed. Furthermore, we observed that aggressive behavior was more frequently directed by females toward males, regardless of body size, and egg survival was not influenced by differences in body size. These findings provide evidence that parental roles and the amount of care provided are strongly sex-dependent in <i>A. clarkii</i>. Ecological factors, such as short care periods (10 d) and protandrous sex change, are considered unlikely to enhance the investment of female anemonefish in parental care.</p>

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Henpecked husbands: parental roles in the monogamous social fish Amphiprion clarkii depend on sex rather than relative size differences within pairs

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月18日

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  • Yuya Kobayashi,
  • Chisaki Hosoda,
  • Masanori Kohda,
  • Satoshi Awata

摘要

Parental care has a direct and beneficial effect on parental fitness. An important question regarding the evolution of parental care is why parental roles and the amount of care invested are characterized by sexual bias. In species that undertake biparental care, in addition to sex-dependent factors, dominant relationships within pairs are predicted to influence parental roles, although this has rarely been assessed. In the anemonefish, Amphiprion clarkii, females are generally larger than their mates. We discovered a population in which the body-size differences within pairs varied, with males sometimes exceeding females. Using this anemonefish population, we sought to determine whether parental roles and the amount of care invested by males and females were determined by sex or body size in the breeding pairs. We found that males spent more time caring for the clutch and attacking egg predators than females, even when the size of the sexes was reversed. Furthermore, we observed that aggressive behavior was more frequently directed by females toward males, regardless of body size, and egg survival was not influenced by differences in body size. These findings provide evidence that parental roles and the amount of care provided are strongly sex-dependent in A. clarkii. Ecological factors, such as short care periods (10 d) and protandrous sex change, are considered unlikely to enhance the investment of female anemonefish in parental care.