Abstract
Mutualistic and commensal interactions can have significant positive impacts on animal fitness and survival. However, behavioural interactions between pelagic animals living in offshore oceanic environments are little studied. Parasites can negatively effect the fitness of their hosts by draining resources and diverting energy from growth, reproduction, and other bodily functions. Pelagic fishes are hosts to a diverse array of parasites, however their environment provides few options for removal. Here we provide records of scraping behaviour of several pelagic teleost species, a behaviour that is likely used for parasite removal. These records span three ocean basins and, to the best of our knowledge, include the first records of scraping interactions involving tunas, blue sharks, and mako sharks as well as the first records of intraspecific scraping. We found that scrapers preferred scraping their head, eyes, gill cover, and lateral surfaces, areas where parasites are commonly found and where damage would likely have a substantial impact on fitness. Scraper species varied in their scraping preferences with tunas scraping mostly on the posterior caudal margins of sharks and occasionally conspecifics, while rainbow runner scraped in more varied locations on both sharks and conspecifics. Lengths of scrapers and scrapees were positively correlated and fish scraping on sharks were larger than those scraping on conspecifics, suggesting that risk of predation may be a limiting factor. We show that pelagic teleosts prefer to scrape on sharks rather than conspecifics or other teleosts and suggest that this behaviour may have a positive impact on teleost fitness by reducing parasite loads. The decline of shark populations in the global ocean and the reduction in mean size of many species may limit these interactions, eroding possible fitness benefits associated with this behaviour, and consequently placing more pressure on already highly targeted and vulnerable species.
Funder
National Geographic Society
Ian Potter Foundation
Fondation Bertarelli
National Environmental Science Program - Marine Biodiversity Hub
UK Blue Belt Programme
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Reference80 articles.
1. Parasitism, commensalism and mutualism: Exploring the many shades of symbioses;TLF Leung;Vie Milieu / Life Environ,2008
2. Long-Term Effects of the Cleaner Fish Labroides dimidiatus on Coral Reef Fish Communities;PA Waldie;PLoS One,2011
3. Gut bacteria in the holometabola: A review of obligate and facultative symbionts;RA Kucuk;J Insect Sci,2020
4. Most corals may not change their symbionts;TL Goulet;Mar Ecol Prog Ser,2006
5. Long-term cleaner fish presence affects growth of a coral reef fish;GE Clague;Biol Lett,2011
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献