Abstract
The deep ocean is frequently assumed to be a homogeneous system lackingthe same diverse life history strategies found in shallower waters. However, as ourmethods for exploring the deep ocean improve, common assumptions about dispersal,reproduction and behavior are constantly being challenged. Fishes exhibit the mostdiverse reproductive strategies among vertebrates. Understanding life historystrategies in deep-sea environments is lacking for many species of fishes. Here, wereport a novel reproductive strategy where a fish (Parazenpacificus) provides parental care via mouth brooding. This behavioris observed from a specimen collected with eggs present in the buccal cavity, alongwith other specimens exhibiting pre-brooding morphologies. This is the firstdescription of this unique life history trait in a deep-sea fish and fills in a gapin the larval literature for this family of fishes and prompts further investigationinto other novel reproductive modes of deep-sea fauna.
Highlights
This behavior is observed from a specimen collected with eggs present in the buccal cavity, along with other specimens exhibiting pre-brooding morphologies
This is the first description of this unique life history trait in a deep-sea fish and fills in a gap in the larval literature for this family of fishes and
E Of all vertebrates, the varieties of parental care behaviors in fishes, teleosts, are considered the most diverse, with behaviors ranging from no care to bi-parental care[1]
Summary
This behavior is observed from a specimen collected with eggs present in the buccal cavity, along with other specimens exhibiting pre-brooding morphologies. E families of zeiform fishes have at least a basic larval description and the young have been illustrated or described for six of the Pacific genera[10] and only four of a probable 10–11 western North Atlantic species[11]. Recently a specimen of Parazen pacificus from the western Pacific Ocean was found with an egg mass in its buccal cavity.
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