Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii

Background Although the biomass of the nocturnal fishes is almost same as that of diurnal fishes, most of the ecological studies that examine feeding or reproductive behaviors are on diurnal fishes. Therefore, there is limited ecological information regarding the nocturnal fishes. This fact may be a...

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Autores principales:	Keita Koeda, Hideyuki Touma, Katsunori Tachihara
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:	Sweepers Pempheridae Nocturnal Coral reef Observation Feeding behavior Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/88d113af555648b3a8953acd59b7f458
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:88d113af555648b3a8953acd59b7f4582021-11-18T15:05:19ZNighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii10.7717/peerj.124122167-8359https://doaj.org/article/88d113af555648b3a8953acd59b7f4582021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://peerj.com/articles/12412.pdfhttps://peerj.com/articles/12412/https://doaj.org/toc/2167-8359Background Although the biomass of the nocturnal fishes is almost same as that of diurnal fishes, most of the ecological studies that examine feeding or reproductive behaviors are on diurnal fishes. Therefore, there is limited ecological information regarding the nocturnal fishes. This fact may be attributed to the difficulty in observing them during darkness. Members of the genus Pempheris (Pempheridae) are one of the most abundant nocturnal fishes on coral reefs. Methods The nighttime migrations of Pempheris schwenkii were observed by attaching a chemical luminescent tag. Tagged fishes were followed by an observer without torch and SCUBA, and their positions and estimated depths were plotted on an underwater topographic map. Aquarium tank observation was carried out to further describe their habits during the night. Results The new tagging method provided good data for observing the migration behavior. In all five observations, the target fishes started nighttime migration from the entrance of their cave within 1 h after sunset. All of them immediately left the inner reef and spent most of the observation time near the surface (0–5 m depth) or shallow (5–15 m depth) water-columns of the outer reef. Their migration pattern varied between days, but they migrated long distance (379–786 m/h) during each observation. The behavior observed in the aquarium tank was categorized into five patterns: schooling, shaking, migrating, spawning, and feeding. Shaking and spawning were observed during one of three observation days. Discussion The present study firstly clarified the small-scale but dynamic nocturnal migration pattern of P. schwenkii in nature by a new method using chemical luminescent tags. In addition, combined observations from nature and an aquarium could be used to estimate the behavior of this species. Pempheris schwenkii may reduce their predation risk of eggs and adults by spawning at outer reef in nighttime. It was estimated that they can potentially migrate 4–7 km/night. The rapid growth known for this species may have been supported by their feeding behavior where they can fill up their stomach every night with rich zooplankton in outer reefs. Furthermore, the behavior of this species indicates the possibility that they make an important contribution to the flow of energy and materials in their coral reef ecosystem.Keita KoedaHideyuki ToumaKatsunori TachiharaPeerJ Inc.articleSweepersPempheridaeNocturnalCoral reefObservationFeeding behaviorMedicineRENPeerJ, Vol 9, p e12412 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Sweepers Pempheridae Nocturnal Coral reef Observation Feeding behavior Medicine R
spellingShingle	Sweepers Pempheridae Nocturnal Coral reef Observation Feeding behavior Medicine R Keita Koeda Hideyuki Touma Katsunori Tachihara Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
description	Background Although the biomass of the nocturnal fishes is almost same as that of diurnal fishes, most of the ecological studies that examine feeding or reproductive behaviors are on diurnal fishes. Therefore, there is limited ecological information regarding the nocturnal fishes. This fact may be attributed to the difficulty in observing them during darkness. Members of the genus Pempheris (Pempheridae) are one of the most abundant nocturnal fishes on coral reefs. Methods The nighttime migrations of Pempheris schwenkii were observed by attaching a chemical luminescent tag. Tagged fishes were followed by an observer without torch and SCUBA, and their positions and estimated depths were plotted on an underwater topographic map. Aquarium tank observation was carried out to further describe their habits during the night. Results The new tagging method provided good data for observing the migration behavior. In all five observations, the target fishes started nighttime migration from the entrance of their cave within 1 h after sunset. All of them immediately left the inner reef and spent most of the observation time near the surface (0–5 m depth) or shallow (5–15 m depth) water-columns of the outer reef. Their migration pattern varied between days, but they migrated long distance (379–786 m/h) during each observation. The behavior observed in the aquarium tank was categorized into five patterns: schooling, shaking, migrating, spawning, and feeding. Shaking and spawning were observed during one of three observation days. Discussion The present study firstly clarified the small-scale but dynamic nocturnal migration pattern of P. schwenkii in nature by a new method using chemical luminescent tags. In addition, combined observations from nature and an aquarium could be used to estimate the behavior of this species. Pempheris schwenkii may reduce their predation risk of eggs and adults by spawning at outer reef in nighttime. It was estimated that they can potentially migrate 4–7 km/night. The rapid growth known for this species may have been supported by their feeding behavior where they can fill up their stomach every night with rich zooplankton in outer reefs. Furthermore, the behavior of this species indicates the possibility that they make an important contribution to the flow of energy and materials in their coral reef ecosystem.
format	article
author	Keita Koeda Hideyuki Touma Katsunori Tachihara
author_facet	Keita Koeda Hideyuki Touma Katsunori Tachihara
author_sort	Keita Koeda
title	Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
title_short	Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
title_full	Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
title_fullStr	Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
title_full_unstemmed	Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii
title_sort	nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of pempheris schwenkii
publisher	PeerJ Inc.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/88d113af555648b3a8953acd59b7f458
work_keys_str_mv	AT keitakoeda nighttimemigrationsandbehavioralpatternsofpempherisschwenkii AT hideyukitouma nighttimemigrationsandbehavioralpatternsofpempherisschwenkii AT katsunoritachihara nighttimemigrationsandbehavioralpatternsofpempherisschwenkii
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Nighttime migrations and behavioral patterns of Pempheris schwenkii

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