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Gonadal development in the coral reef damselfish Dascyllus flavicaudus from Moorea, French Polynesia

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Abstract

The present study investigated the sexual pattern of the yellow-tailed dascyllus, Dascyllus flavicaudus (Randall and Allen), through histological examination of the process of gonadal differentiation and maturation and through male-removal experiments in the laboratory. The study was conducted in Moorea, French Polynesia (17°32′S; 149°50′W), from 31 December 1994 to 11 March 1995. For gonadal histology, two populations were sampled, one consisting of large aggregations (n=54) and the other consisting of small- to medium-sized groups around isolated corals (n=55). An additional small sample (n=21) was also collected from a population that consisted of small groups around isolated corals. After an initially undifferentiated state, gonads of D. flavicaudus developed an ovarian lumen, followed by oocytes in the primary growth stage. From this ovarian state or from more developed ovaries with cortical-alveolus stage oocytes, some gonads developed into testes through degeneration of oocytes and development of spermatogenic tissue. In all three populations, spermatogenic tissue developed only in gonads that contained pre-vitellogenic oocytes (termed as mixed stage 1–2 gonads). The two main populations did not differ in their expression of sex change despite differences in their social organization. In both populations, size of individuals with mixed stage 1–2 gonads overlapped mainly with the size range of immature females, which suggests that functional female-to-male sex change was rare. The hypothesis that D. flavicaudus is primarily gonochoristic is further supported by removal experiments in laboratory groups, in which removal of a dominant male(s) failed to induce sex change in any of the high-ranking females. Yet, in all three field populations, some fish with mixed stage 1–2 gonads were found within the size ranges of mature females, which indicates possible occurrences of functional sex change. These conflicting results indicate that it may be premature to draw any definitive conclusions about the sexual pattern of D. flavicaudus.

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Fig. 1a–h
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Acknowledgements

I deeply thank the researchers and staff of Antenne de Recherches de l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes à Moorea, R. Galzin, V. Dufour, J. Algret, Y. Chancerelle, A. Lo-Yat, and C.M. Lo, for their assistance and support in every aspect of the fieldwork, and those at Gump Station, University California, Berkeley, for the wet-lab access. Millions of thanks go to L.A. Privitera, T. Yoshikawa, and two anonymous referees for helpful discussions and the review of the manuscript, to M. Tamura for preparation of the picture plates, to M.C. Rigby for his company in many dives, and to M. Kasuya for help in histological processing. L.A. Privitera also went through an agony of grammatical corrections and editing. She demonstrated an astonishing talent in reading between the lines and provided many beautiful alternatives to my clumsy sentences. The field collection and laboratory processing parts of this study were supported by a fieldwork scholarship from the East–West Center, a Hawai‘i Audubon Society Research Grant, a Raney Award from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, a Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research Award, and an International Women’s Fishing Association Scholarship, and the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawai‘i. I was supported by the Department of Biology, Ochanomizu University, during slide analysis and writing of the manuscript. This research was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the University of Hawai‘i.

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  1. K. Asoh

    Present address: , 1-16-1-503 Shuku-machi, 232-0017, Yokohama, Minami-ku, Japan

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  1. Department of Zoology and Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

    K. Asoh

  2. Department of Biology, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

    K. Asoh

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Correspondence to K. Asoh.

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Communicated by T. Ikeda, Hakodate

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Asoh, K. Gonadal development in the coral reef damselfish Dascyllus flavicaudus from Moorea, French Polynesia. Marine Biology 146, 167–179 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-004-1414-7

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