Nocturnal spawning as a way to avoid egg exposure to diurnal predators

Abstract

Animals that do not provide parental care have to secure the survival of their offspring by ensuring a safe reproductive environment or smart timing tactics. Nocturnal spawning behaviour of many fish species is an example of the latter behaviour in the animal kingdom and is hypothesized to provide a survival advantage to the eggs spawned during the night. In order to test the efficiency of the smart timing tactics in a freshwater fish, a study was carried out of the interaction of the rheophilic spawner (asp Leuciscus aspius) and the predator of its drifting eggs (bleak Alburnus alburnus) using passive telemetry. According to a model based on acquired data, asp laid 63% of its eggs at night, while vision oriented bleak was present in 92% of the time during the day. This study gives support to the predator avoidance hypothesis, which expects animals to reproduce in a period when the probability of offspring predation is at its lowest.