Yellowtail damselfish Chrysiptera parasema can associate predation risk with the acoustic call of a heterospecific damselfish following pairing with conspecific alarm cues

The ability to detect and respond to the presence of predation risk is under intense selection, especially for small-bodied fishes that coexist with predators. Fish use visual, olfactory, and auditory cues to assess predation risk. Damselfishes (Pomacentridae) use auditory vocalizations during inter- and intrasexual interactions, but it is not known if they can use vocalizations in the context of predator-prey interactions. Here, we test if yellowtail damselfish, Chrysiptera parasema, can learn to associate the territorial vocalization of heterospecific humbug damselfish Dascyllus aruanus with predation risk. In conditioning trials of yellowtail damselfish we played the territorial call of humbug damselfish while introducing either blank water (control treatment) or chemical alarm cue derived from damaged skin of conspecific yellowtail damselfish. In conditioning trials, fish exposed to alarm cue increased activity and spent more time in the water column relative to fish that received t..., Study animals and experimental apparatus        
Yellowtail damselfish, Chrysiptera parasema, were purchased from a commercial supplier for the ornamental fish trade. Fish were acquired in two batches, shipped from the wholesaler 74 days apart. Individual damselfish were set up in 37-L glass-bottom aquaria filled with salt water made from reverse osmosis deionized water and Instant Ocean® marine salt adjusted to a salinity of 35 ppt. Fish were kept at 26° C. and maintained on a diet of commercial flake food and thawed adult brine shrimp. Each tank was equipped with an air-powered sponge filter, heater, and a shelter constructed from a 108 x 108 mm ceramic tile supported by legs 37 mm long on each corner. A length of airline tubing used for delivering test stimuli was affixed to the edge of each tank and terminated inside the rigid plastic tube through which the rising column of air and water exit from the air-powered sponge filter. These currents quickly dispersed test stimuli throughou..., , # Title of Dataset:

Damselfish associate acoustic call with predation risk
 

## Description of the data and file structure

 
Column headings are:

* Fish Batch = Test fish were acquired in two separate batches that turned out to behave slightly differently. We used this dummmy variable as a random predictor in our glm to control for this effect.
* C_Trial = We ran 30 trials, 15 with alarm cue and 15 with water. The 'A' indicates that this was the conditioning trial, the 'B' indicates that this was the test trial.
* Alarm1Water2 = the chemical cue used in the conditioning trial; 1=alarm cue, 2 = water. We did not use a chemical cue in test trials
* C_Date: date of the conditioning trial in test trials, only the audio file.
* Total_Length_m = fish total length in mm
* C_Pre_VD = pre-stimulus vertical distribution in conditioning trials. Vertical distribution was recorded as the horizontal row on the grid the fish occupied during point samples taken every 10 s for 5 min.
* ...