Blog post : Module 10 reflection

 Usually, females tend to be choosier, evaluating morphological and behavioral traits from potential mates to determine which will maximize their fitness. Males tend to compete with one another to gain the female's attention. In the broad-nosed pipefish, males become ‘pregnant’ and care for their embryos until birth. In this scenario, the male is choosier about potential female mates. The female lays her eggs into the male's brood pouch, where they are fertilized. The male incubates the eggs for approximately two weeks before they hatch. He then releases a cloud of tiny, fully formed pipefish from his pouch into the water. Males of pipefishes, seahorses, and seadragons (family Syngnathidae) care for developing embryos on their bodies from mating through to birth. In genera with brood pouches, such as Syngnathus, the care provided has similarities with mammalian pregnancy, so brooding males are said to be ‘pregnant. Many species exhibit polyandry, a breeding system in which one female mates with two or more males. The female pipefish is an example of polyandry. During this incubation time in the male body, the female pipefish can mete with more males to maximize the number of offspring. For other species, females spend more energy and time producing offspring compared to males. As a result, the female can produce few generations of offspring during their lifespan. whereas males can mate with numerous females within a short period and produce many offspring. In pipefish, it is the opposite scenario. Parental care is an important factor in reproductive success, and care quality can help in understanding mate choice and other reproductive decisions. Parental care enhances the survival and quality of offspring of many different animals. However, this care entails energy costs for the parent providing it and affects reproductive success over its lifetime. From this we can see among the partner who is providing parental care is choosier about selecting a mate. In the pipe, the fish male is providing parental care to the offspring by incubating the embryo in its body. Another reason may be males are more capable of protecting their offspring from predators. In other species, males try to impress females for mating such as many male birds exhibit colorful feathers or dance, and many male animals fight with another male to show physical fitness. In these cases, male plays little to no role in parental care to the offspring. From this video, we can see the female pipefish is dancing around the male to impress for mating. Since afterword, she will play no role in taking care of the offspring and the male will do. These reasons may help to presume why female courtship might have evolved in pipefish.

 

https://researchoutreach.org/articles/pipefish-male-pregnancy-why-females-prefer-large-mates/

https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/sexual-selection-13255240/