Strong inbreeding depression in male mating behaviour in a poeciliid fish

Abstract

The magnitude of inbreeding depression is often larger in traits closely related to fitness, such as survival and fecundity, compared to morphological traits. Reproductive behaviour is also closely associated with fitness, and therefore expected to show strong inbreeding depression. Despite this, little is known about how reproductive behaviour is affected by inbreeding. Here we show that one generation of full-sib mating results in a decrease in male reproductive performance in the least killifish (Heterandria formosa). Inbred males performed less gonopodial thrusts and thrust attempts than outbred males (delta = 0.38). We show that this behaviour is closely linked with fitness as gonopodial performance correlates with paternity success. Other traits that show inbreeding depression are offspring viability (delta = 0.06) and maturation time of males (delta = 0.19) and females (delta = 0.14). Outbred matings produced a female biased sex ratio whereas inbred matings produced an even sex ratio.