Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on January 25, 2006
Chemical Senses 2006 31(3):265-272; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjj028
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Site Fidelity and Homing in Tropical Coral Reef Cardinalfish: Are They Using Olfactory Cues?
1 Institute of Molecular Bioscience, University of Oslo, PO Box 1041, N-0316 Oslo, Norway, 2 Department of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Mathematics and Sciences, Agder University College, Serviceboks 422, N-4604 Kristiansand, Norway, 3 Institute of Biology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, N-0316 Oslo, Norway and 4 Department of Biology, University of Windsor, ON, Canada
Correspondence to be sent to: Kjell B. Døving, Institute of Molecular Bioscience, University of Oslo, PO Box 1041, N-0316 Oslo, Norway. e-mail: kjelld{at}bio.uio.no
A number of tropical coral reef fish hold station and display restricted home ranges. If artificially displaced, they will return to their home site. We questioned if marine fish are using the same mechanisms for home site detection as many freshwater fish, that is, by olfactory sensing of chemical signals deposited on the substrate by conspecific fish. Behavioral experiments were conducted on Lizard Island Research Station, Queensland, Australia, in 2001 and 2002. Five-lined cardinalfish (Cheilodipterus quinquelineatus) were tested in groups with split-branded cardinalfish (Apogon compressus) as a reference species and individually against Apogon leptacanthus as well as conspecifics of another reef site. The group tests showed that both species preferred artificial reef sites that had previously been occupied by conspecifics. Individual C. quinquelineatus preferred scent of conspecifics from their own reef site to that from another site. They also preferred the scent released by artificial reefs previously occupied by conspecifics of their reef site to that of similar reefs previously occupied by conspecifics of another reef site. No discrimination between species from the same reef site was obtained in experiments with individual fish. Our data suggest that cardinalfish are keeping station and are homing by use of conspecific olfactory signals.
Key words: chemical cues, conspecific detection, preference behavior, substrate marking
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