Territorial behaviour of male dragonets (Callionymus Lyra)

Extract

Citadel Hill, Plymouth (Plates I–II) The sexual display and mating of the dragonet (Callionymus lyra L.) were well described by Holt in 1898 from observations of the behaviour in a relatively small tank in the Plymouth aquarium. When in 1959 numerous dragonets werekept in a much larger tank mature males established territories within which they displayed tofemales. The more pugnacious males maintained larger territories than less pugnacious males. Maintenance was mainly by display against rivals without physical contact, but occasionally there were direct attacks in which minor damage was inflicted.

In his long and detailed account of the sexual display and mating of the dragonet (Callionymus lyra L.), based on observations in the Association's aquarium at Plymouth, Holt (1898) makes no mention of males defending specific areas and states that there was 'no evidence of serious combat among mature males' (p. 312). 'Occasionally the two males meet in full splendour. Then one lowers his colours and flies ingloriously; but I have never seen anything in the shape of a fight, and have never found wounds that might have been inflicted when I was not watching' (p. 288). Holt records (p. 286) that his dragonets inhabited a tank on the south side of the aquarium and it was in that tank that breeding displays took place. He also put large males into a very much larger tank, though only to watch their reactions in the presence of large turbot (p. 295): one was eaten, others disappeared not to be seen again.