Growth Effects on the Auditory Threshold of Red Sea Bream.

Ontogenetic and interspecific variation in hearing ability in marine fish larvae

“…A dramatic improvement in auditory ability from juveniles to adults was found in 2 species of pomacentrid, Stegastes partitus and S. variablis (Kenyon 1996). Three studies also reported a frequency-dependent improvement in auditory ability from juveniles to adults (Iwashita et al 1999, Wysocki & Ladich 2001, Egner & Mann 2005. The hearing ability of 2 marine fishes, the sparid Pagrus major (Iwashita et al 1999) and the pomacentrid Abudefduf saxatilis (Egner & Mann 2005), improved with an increase in size, but only at the frequencies of 100 and 200 Hz.…”

“…Three studies also reported a frequency-dependent improvement in auditory ability from juveniles to adults (Iwashita et al 1999, Wysocki & Ladich 2001, Egner & Mann 2005. The hearing ability of 2 marine fishes, the sparid Pagrus major (Iwashita et al 1999) and the pomacentrid Abudefduf saxatilis (Egner & Mann 2005), improved with an increase in size, but only at the frequencies of 100 and 200 Hz. A vocalising species, the freshwater characid Trichopsis vittata showed a significant improvement in auditory ability only between 800 and 2500 Hz (Wysocki & Ladich 2001).…”

“…Sorely missing from this debate are data on hearing abilities of the pelagic larval stages of marine fishes, except for a very few species at settlement (Wright et al 2005(Wright et al , 2008(Wright et al , 2010. It is also unclear how hearing changes ontogenetically in these species, although, from settlement onwards, 4 species in the families Pomacentridae and Sparidae improve in hearing sensitivity with growth over at least some frequencies (Kenyon 1996, Iwashita et al 1999, Egner & Mann 2005, Wright et al 2005. Until the auditory abilities of pre-and post-settlement stages of more species are quantified, the potential role of hearing in self-directed larval settlement and subsequent recruitment will remain elusive.…”

Seasonal plasticity of auditory hair cell frequency sensitivity correlates with plasma steroid levels in vocal fish

“…Mammals show marked decline in auditory sensitivity with age, particularly at higher frequencies within their respective audible ranges (for a review, see Ohlemiller, 2006). Songbirds have been shown to have remarkably stable baseline auditory thresholds throughout ontogeny (Langemann et al, 1999) with species-specific seasonal changes (Lucas et al, 2002;Lucas et al, 2007), whereas studies in fishes have yielded conflicting results (Higgs et al, 2003;Higgs et al, 2002;Iwashita et al, 1999;Kenyon, 1996;Popper, 1971;Sisneros and Bass, 2005). We have investigated peripheral auditory plasticity in a teleost fish, the plainfin midshipman (Porichthys notatus Girard 1854; family Batrachoididae), that shows seasonal, reproductive state-dependent plasticity in the ability to encode the upper harmonics of vocalizations (Fig.1A,B).…”

Response of embryonic coral reef fishes (Pomacentridae: Amphiprion spp.) to noise

“…This trait has been employed as an indicator of health, stress and sensory ability in a wide range of embryonic, juvenile and adult fishes. For example, monitoring of ƒH has been used to determine the effect of temperature acclimation on rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (Aho & Vornanen 2001) and triploid brown trout Salmo trutta ; the response to predator attacks in farmed and wild Atlantic salmon Salmo salar (Johnsson et al 2001); to determine stress in rainbow trout from sound and light treatments (Kojima & Soeda 1997); and to measure the threshold of hearing in juvenile red sea bream Pagrus major (Iwashita et al 1999). Additionally, ƒH response has been used to examine sublethal effects of chemicals on fish embryos (Stouthart et al 1996, Fitzsimons et al 1999, Latif et al 2001.…”