The main issue of the study is to understand the reproductive pattern of male fishes in the context of sperm competition. Fishes show a wide variety of strategies in sperm competition. Reproductive patterns, such as parasitic reproductive behavior, gonochorism, sequential hermaphroditism, simultaneous hermaphroditism, and internal and external fertilization, are adopted by different fishes. The main question of the study is to understand the preference or pattern of reproductive design that determines the fertilization process.
The author developed a threefold observation sequence on the male fishes based on behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations. The study included 24 families that consisting of 123 species of male fishes where salmons were the main fishes of interest. The observations were noted and backed by adequate literature. There were two methods used in the study. The first was sampling and quantitative method. The second one was the analysis and evaluation of another research.
However, only 3 out of 53 research papers used in the study were more than a decade old and even they from were highly peer-reviewed journals. Thus, all the latest findings were used in the study to find the behavioral adaptations, physiological and morphological adaptations of the male fishes.
The fundamental theory of the study proposed that the time, space, and opportunity of the fishes were the main determinates of the reproductive pattern of male fishes in the context of sperm competition. It was also determined that as there were a greater size and morphological differences among the fishes of the same species, the adaptation of the pattern of reproduction followed the most opportunistic mode of fertilization. For organisms, evolution is a tool that has constructed the basic construction of sexual behaviors based on behavioral, physiological, and morphological adaptations.
It was found in the study that the fishes utilized various aspects of adaptation. It was found that in the context of taxa there is a use of both internal and external fertilization following the opportunity. Sexual behaviors were wide and there was a good amount of flexibility available and utilized. A third finding suggests that fishes utilize a pattern of parasitic approach in reproduction, and it is omnipresent in all parameters of the reproductive process of the male fish.
All these patterns are dependent on the size of the fish and the opportunity available in the environment. This is because the growth pattern of the male fish is practically undefined, and the fertilization opportunity is directly proportional to the size of the fish. It was also found that most of the species of male fishes that have more than two reproductive patterns belong to teleost families of five species. (Taborsky, 1998)
Overall, the study is constructed and executed in a very meticulous manner. The wide literature used in the study indicates the flawless scientific approach and tenacity of the author. These applications make the study more acceptable and truthful. Furthermore, the study opens up the opportunity for more research options on the issue and makes way for more elaborate research on the topic in the future. Thus, this study can be enumerated as an excellent example of work and a recommendation for future studies. However, a bigger population of fish could have been used for a more accurate result. Hopefully, future works on the subject would compensate for this blemish.
References
Taborsky, M. (1998). Sperm competition in fish: ‘bourgeois’ males and parasitic spawning. TREE 13(6), 222-227.