Reproductive behaviour and parental care in Actinopterygii families

Actinopterygii fishes exhibit remarkable reproductive diversity, encompassing a wide array of sex determination mechanisms, mating systems, and parental care behaviours. While external fertilization and high fecundity are predominant characteristics, numerous exceptions reveal intricate evolutionary adaptations across families. This literature review analyzes the reproductive traits of 23 species-rich fish families, covering approximately 37% of fish biodiversity with a vast literature. It presents aspects of sex determination, hermaphroditism and sex-change, spawning sites and nesting, courtship behaviour and sensory modalities, intra- and intersexual selection, sex dimorphism, mating system and parental care. Interesting patterns emerged and knowledge gaps are presented and discussed. Understanding fish reproductive behaviour is essential for ecological and conservation purposes. By synthesizing available data across taxonomic groups, this review provides a framework for future studies, presenting the complexity of reproductive adaptations and their roles in population dynamics and fish evolution.