Auditory evoked potential audiograms in post-settlement stage individuals of coral reef fishes
Abstract
Justafterthereefcolonization,fishspeciescouldusetheacousticcuetosettleondifferentsuitablehabitats.Inthe
present study, we used the auditory evoked potential (AEP) technique to measure and compare the detection
abilities in five coral reef fish species, with some of these species that are found in the same habitat. We also ex-
aminedtheeffectoffishsizeonsensitivityatthespecieslevel.Allstudiedspeciesexceptoneshowedsize-related
changesinsensitivitycharacterizedbyeitheradecrease(i.e.higherAEPthresholds)oranincrease(i.e.lowerAEP
thresholds) in detection abilities with increasing size. The interspecific comparison of audiograms revealed that
some species are more sensitive than others in terms of sound pressure level and frequency detection.
Overall,thisstudy indicatesthattheAEPthresholdandthefrequencybandwidthatearlylifestagesmay vary be-
tween andwithin fish species.Thedetectionabilities aredifferent infish species thatarenotphylogeneticallyre-
lated, which might suggest that the establishment of their capabilities is not necessarily related to the reef
conquest.