Science

Farmer fish become first animal found domesticating another species

Longfin damselfish have been found to domesticate mysid shrimp
Rohan Brooker
Longfin damselfish have been found to domesticate mysid shrimp
Rohan Brooker

Human civilization wouldn’t be where it is today if we hadn’t domesticated animals to be either loyal and cuddly or dumb and tasty. Now, researchers in Australia have discovered what they claim is the very first example of an animal domesticating another animal – a fish species found to recruit tiny shrimp to help tend their algae farms.

It’s believed that humans first domesticated the wolf around 15,000 years ago to help us hunt, and later for companionship. Over the following millennia, we added goats, pigs, sheep and cattle for food and materials. And almost every plant we eat looks nothing like their original wild counterparts, having been honed for thousands of years at our hands to be bigger, hardier, tastier, more nutritious or easier to grow, harvest and eat.

So far, the only other organisms known to domesticate others have been insects – for example ants farm aphids, protecting them from predators in exchange for the sweet sticky goo they excrete. But the behavior has never been observed in other vertebrate species before.

Until now. On an expedition to coral reefs in Belize, a team led by researchers at Griffith and Deakin Universities discovered that longfin damselfish appear to have domesticated mysid shrimp.

The relationship sounds familiar. Damselfish are known to farm algae for food, and it appears that they use mysid shrimp feces as fertilizer to help their crops grow. In return, the shrimp are given a safe haven to live – the fish will chase off any shrimp-craving predators that swim too close.

The scientists confirmed the idea through a series of field and lab tests. They found that the mysids are actually attracted to the smell of the damselfish, while they actively avoid the smell of predators and don’t seem to pay any attention to non-farming fish nor the algae farm itself.

To test whether the fish actively protect the shrimp, the researchers placed the mysids in a clear bag and then placed that bag either inside or outside a farm. Sure enough, outside farms other fish tried to eat the shrimp, but inside the farms any predators that came too close were shooed away by the farmer fish.

And finally, the team tested what benefit the shrimp give the fish. They found that the quality of the algae and the health of the fish improved when the shrimp were around, compared to farms without shrimp.

“The field studies and behavioral experiments we conducted at Carrie Bow Cay Research Station, however, provided evidence the relationship between damselfish and mysids bears all the hallmarks of domestication, not dissimilar to how humans keep farm animals,” says William Feeney, lead author of the study. “This is the first recorded case of a non-human vertebrate domesticating another species, and the first experimental evidence for a hypothesised pathway for how this domestication evolved.”

The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: Griffith University, The Conversation

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19 comments
anthony88
Fish, shrimp and algae - catch them together and you have instant seafood cocktail.
JD
"Human civilization wouldn’t be where it is today if we hadn’t domesticated animals." In light of the ongoing Anthropocene, I ask you: where has subjugating our fellow creatures to our will brought us?
piperTom
I don't know about JD, but subjugating creatures has brought me breakfast and lunch. As recently as last night, I got a very nice, warm, purring creature on my lap.
KennethGreenblatt
It's likely more common than you would think, I saw a nature doc once that showed baboons in India domesticating a wild dog to guard them at night on the huge landfill where they lived.
Catweazle
JD asks "I ask you: where has subjugating our fellow creatures to our will brought us?"

All sorts of benefits actually, including - but not restricted to - bacon sandwiches!
Edison in SM
I haven't read the original article, but how do you/they come up with this as the "first experimental evidence for a hypothesised pathway for how this domestication evolved?”
This may be evidence of symbiosis, but there is nothing mentioned that is evidence for the 'pathway' of domestication 'evolving'. Given the short term memory of fish, it would seem the only way any such pathway might be proven is by replicating this behavior with freshly spawned fish that have not already seen such domestication. Was this part of the experiment?
Joel Smart
Domesticating can simply mean taming an animal to use it for your benefit, which does sort-of seem to be what is happening here at a very basic level. Defending the animal so that it feels safe on your farm. However, generally one thinks of domestication as involving selective breeding -- intentionally causing desirable traits to be passed on to subseqent generations. Obviously that level of domestication is not going on here, but it is still interesting to see examples of animals or plants or various forms of life working together in a symbiotic relationship. Another example would be the anemone and the clownfish ... the anemone gives the clownfish with protection/shelter, while the clownfish provides the anemone with nutrients as well as scaring off predators.
McDesign
Ants and aphids have a similar relationship.
Nahor
Since when are insects not animals? For that matter, since when are humans not animals? It might be the first fish known to domesticate another species, but certainly not the first animal
Signguy
Just another example of God's marvelous Creation and His imagination.