Host preference and habitat segregation among Red Sea anemonefish: effects of sea anemone traits and fish life stages

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 464:1-15 (2012) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09964 FEATURE ARTICLE Host preference and habitat segregation among Red Sea anemonefish: effects of sea anemone traits and fish life stages Lindsay K. Huebner1,*, Brianna Dailey1, Benjamin M. Titus1, Maroof Khalaf2, Nanette E. Chadwick1 1Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA 2Department of Marine Biology, The University of Jordan-Aqaba, Aqaba 77110, Jordan *Email: lindsayhuebner@gmail.com ABSTRACT: Competition drives habitat segregation between adults and juveniles in many types of organisms, but little is known about this process in anemonefish that compete for host sea anemones which differ in habitat quality. We performed field and laboratory experiments to determine causes of habitat segregation in 2-band anemonefish Amphiprion bicinctus on coral reefs in the northern Red Sea, where juvenile fish mainly occupy leathery sea anemones Heteractis crispa, and breeding adults almost exclusively inhabit bulb-tentacle sea anemones Entacmaea quadricolor. E. quadricolor were usually larger than H. crispa, and expanded more in response to fish presence. Adult fish visually concealed a larger proportion of their body surface area among the relatively thick tentacles of E. quadricolor than among the thinner tentacles of H. crispa, while juveniles were concealed equally well in both hosts. During field experiments, vacated E. quadricolor were colonized rapidly by fish, whereas H. crispa were not. In laboratory choice experiments, fish at all post-settlement life stages preferred E. quadricolor, and large individuals monopolized this host and relegated subordinates to H. crispa. We conclude that competitive exclusion drives habitat segregation among life stages of this anemonefish and that host anemone traits underlie this process. The non-preferred host H. crispa may function as a refuge for juvenile fish while they wait for space to become available in the preferred host E. quadricolor, where they are able to attain sexual maturity. KEY WORDS: Intraspecific competition · Symbiosis · Amphiprion bicinctus · Entacmaea quadricolor · Heteractis crispa · Coral reef Full text in pdf format Information about this Feature Article NextCite this article as: Huebner LK, Dailey B, Titus BM, Khalaf M, Chadwick NE (2012) Host preference and habitat segregation among Red Sea anemonefish: effects of sea anemone traits and fish life stages. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 464:1-15. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps09964 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 464. Online publication date: September 19, 2012 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2012 Inter-Research.