Abstract
Males were removed artificially from 33 brooding pairs in a population of the anemonefish Amphiprion clarkii living in the warm temperate waters off Japan. Two-thirds of them were replaced by foreign males before the eggs disappeared or hatched. A total of 17 replacement males cared for the foster eggs with the remaining females, and in five pairs the males assumed nearly full responsibility for caring for the eggs, in the same way as males in natural pairs. The most characteristic interaction between the female and replacement male was butting by the former and substrate-biting by the latter in the close proximity of the nest. It appeared that, by butting, the females were persuading or compelling their new mates to undertake the egg-care duty. It was concluded that step-fathering by the replacement male is payment for pairing with the female.
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