SENSORY CUES UNDERLYING COMPETITIVE GROWTH IN THE CLOWN ANEMONEFISH (Amphiprion percula): data

To assess the type of sensory cues required for clownfish individuals to engage in competitive growth [e.g., mechanosensory (pressure and/or touch), auditory, chemosensory, and/or visual] we use a suite of experiments, in which we size match individuals in an experimental design analogous to that of Reed et al. (2019) but selectively block different types of cues across different treatments. We test four main hypotheses regarding the sensory cues required for size-matched individuals to engage in competitive growth: 1) they must have mechanosensory (pressure and/or touch) cues; 2) they must have auditory cues; 3) they must have chemical cues; 4) they must have visual cues.
At three weeks of age, each larval fish was measured for initial standard length (ISL) to within 0.1mm. This was completed by randomly separating one individual out of the juvenile housing, assigning them a random number ID, and averaging 3 measurements. The number ID remained throughout the experiment to track growth based on length. Then, three fish were size matched to within 0.5mm: two of these three fish were housed as a pair, and one fish was housed as a singleton. At the end of the trial period, a final standard length (FSL) was measured to within 0.1mm. Within pairs, each individual was assigned a rank (pair-rank-1, P1; pair-rank-2, P2; singleton, S) on the basis of their FSL, with the largest being P1.
A series of mixed model analyses and post-hoc Tukey tests showed that mechanosensory (pressure and/or touch) cues are used to assess size and initiate competitive growth. All statistical analyses were conducted using JMP Pro 14.1.0.

为探究小丑鱼个体开展竞争性生长所需的感官线索类型（例如机械感官（mechanosensory，压力和/或触碰）、听觉（auditory）、化学感官（chemosensory）以及视觉（visual）），我们设计了一系列实验。实验中个体的体型匹配方案参考了Reed等人2019年的研究，但在不同处理组中选择性阻断不同类型的感官线索。针对体型匹配个体开展竞争性生长所需的感官线索，我们提出并验证了四项核心假设：1. 个体必须依赖机械感官（压力和/或触碰）线索；2. 个体必须依赖听觉线索；3. 个体必须依赖化学感官线索；4. 个体必须依赖视觉线索。

幼鱼长至3周龄时，我们测量其初始标准体长（initial standard length, ISL），测量精度控制在0.1mm以内。具体操作流程为：从幼鱼饲养容器中随机取出单条个体，为其分配随机编号ID，并对其体长进行3次测量后取平均值。该编号将贯穿整个实验，用于基于体长追踪个体生长情况。随后，选取3条体型差异在0.5mm以内的个体：其中2条作为配对组共同饲养，剩余1条作为单独饲养的对照组。实验周期结束后，再次测量其最终标准体长（final standard length, FSL），精度同样控制在0.1mm以内。根据最终标准体长对配对组个体进行排名：体长最大者记为配对组1号（pair-rank-1, P1），次大者记为配对组2号（pair-rank-2, P2），单独饲养个体记为对照组（S）。

通过一系列混合效应模型分析与事后Tukey检验，我们发现机械感官（压力和/或触碰）线索是个体评估体型并启动竞争性生长的关键。所有统计分析均通过JMP Pro 14.1.0完成。