Chemical Communication in Fish

Abstract

Chemical signals (pheromones) have been shown to be involved in schooling, territorial marking, species, sex and individual recognition, courtship, the induction of physiological readiness for mating, and in parent–young interactions. Alarm substances released from damaged skin elicit avoidance behavior. Pheromones may also be involved in homestream recognition in some anadromous species. Most pheromones investigated act as "releasers"; a few "priming" effects have been observed. In most of the chemically mediated interactions surveyed it is not clear that communication in a generally accepted sense is involved, or whether fish are simply responding adaptively to those metabolic products which inevitably "leak" into the environment and only fortuitously provide "information" to conspecifics. In a few cases, specializations in chemical secretions or secretory structures indicate that they have evolved for communication. It is proposed that a combination of factors — the availability of a wide array of soluble biochemical products, the diffuse nature of the sites from which such products might be released, and the lack of strong selection for complex chemical messages — has resulted in the relatively simple "unritualized" systems of chemical communication which appear to be characteristic of fish.Key words: chemical signals, pheromones, reproduction, schooling, homing, parental behavior, fright reaction