Data from: The influence of recent social experience and physical environment on courtship and male aggression

Background: Social and environmental factors can profoundly impact an
individual’s investment of resources into different components of
reproduction. Such allocation trade-offs are expected to be amplified
under challenging environmental conditions. To test these predictions, we
used a desert-dwelling fish, the desert goby, Chlamydogobius eremius, to
experimentally investigate the effects of prior social experience (with
either a male or a female) on male investment in courtship and aggression
under physiologically benign and challenging conditions (i.e., low versus
high salinity). Results: We found that males maintained a higher level of
aggression towards a rival after a recent encounter with a female,
compared to an encounter with a male, under low (but not high) salinity.
In contrast, male investment in courtship behaviour was unaffected by
either salinity or social experience. Conclusion: Together, our results
suggest that male investment in aggression and courtship displays can
differ in their sensitivity to environmental conditions and that not all
reproductive behaviours are similarly influenced by the same environmental
context.