Tiny Fish Living in Coral Reefs Gets to Decide Birthday of Offspring

Scientists discovered that a particular species of tiny fish that lives in coral reefs choose the birthday of its young.

Choosing to leave the convenience and security of home to travel the globe is challenging. However, dads assist their children in taking the plunge by giving them a little nudge out the door at the ideal moment in the neon goby, a tiny coral reef fish.

The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute and its associates have published a new paper in which they describe the first instance of a coral reef fish directly controlling the timing of the hatching of its young. Male neon gobies spit their embryos out of the entrance to the sponge where they live after taking the eggs out of the nest with their mouths and carrying the newly hatched larvae there.

Neon Goby Eggs

The decision of when to hatch is essential because the coral reef fish's life is most vulnerable during this time.

John Majoris, a research scientist at UT Austin, explained that people frequently mistakenly believe that eggs function like tiny kitchen timers, developing for a predetermined amount of time before hatching, but in many species, embryos actively choose when to hatch. Majoris is the corresponding author for the study.

In the laboratory, Majoris and colleagues discovered that neon goby embryos that grow apart from their parents hatch up to 50% earlier, less synchronously, and with less development than embryos raised by their parents.

At sunrise on the seventh day of embryonic development, all of the male neon goby parents in the study hatched their offspring, suggesting that goby parents somehow know the ideal time for their embryos to hatch. Additionally, parentally cared-for embryos waited for their parents to select the ideal time for them to hatch.

That Parental Touch

Majoris said that Goby embryos are ready but still waiting to be hatched. The embryos patiently await their fathers' signal that it is time to hatch when the parents are present.

They may have an advantage when it comes to catching prey, evading predators, and navigating the open ocean because the offspring that are hatched by their parents are bigger and better developed than embryos that hatch on their own.

Scientists have never before found a coral reef fish that communicates with its young about when to hatch, even though many fish parents tend to their eggs by fanning, protecting, and cleaning the nest. The regulation of parental hatching, however, might be more widespread than previously thought.

Small, evasive bottom dwellers known as cryptobenthic coral reef fishes frequently lay their eggs deep within reef crevices, making it challenging for the developing embryos to determine the best conditions for hatching. Parents can assist in this situation by determining the external environment and timing the hatching of their eggs.

Majoris said that for a small fish, this parenting style is remarkably sophisticated. It just goes to show how much more there is to discover about ocean life.

This study reveals the surprising complexity of fish parenting behavior and offers proof that similar to humans, fish parents can also make adaptive choices based on the environmental factors that affect their offspring's survival, resiliency, and success, Science Daily reports.