Effect of temperature on acoustic communication: Sound production in the croaking gourami (labyrinth fishes)

Abstract

Sound communication comprising the production and detection of acoustic signals is affected by ambient temperature in ectothermic animals. In the present study we investigated the effects of temperature on sound production and characteristics in the croaking gourami Trichopsis vittata, a freshwater fish from Southeast Asia possessing a highly specialized sound-generating mechanism found only in a single genus. The croaking gourami produces pulsed sounds by stretching and plucking two enhanced pectoral fin tendons during rapid pectoral fin beating. Croaking sounds typically consist of a series of double-pulsed bursts with main energies between 1 and 1.5kHz. Sounds were recorded during dyadic contests between two males at three different temperatures (25°, 30° and 35°C). The mean dominant frequency increased with rising temperature from 1.18 to 1.33kHz, whereas temporal characteristics decreased. The sound interval dropped from 492 to 259ms, the burst period from 51 to 35ms and the pulse period from 5.8 to 5.1ms. In contrast, the number of sounds and number of bursts within a sound were not affected by temperature. The current study shows that spectral and temporal characteristics of sounds are affected in different ways by temperature in the croaking gourami, whereas the numbers of sounds and bursts remain unaffected. We conclude that acoustic communication in gouramis is affected by changes in ambient temperature.