Species identity and the temporal characteristics of fish acoustic signals

Analyses of the acoustic signals of fish show that fine-scale temporal patterns of signals are what vary among species. A growing body of research addressing the topic of species differences in fish acoustic signals suggests that these differences are related to mate choice or species isolation. However, little behavioral work has been done to determine whether these temporal differences are actually used in discriminating conspecific sounds from interspecific sounds. In this article, the authors review three cases--Centrachids, Mormyrids, and Pomancentrids--for which species specificity in both signal production and differential response to acoustic signals have been demonstrated. Work done on damselfish (Dascyllus albisella) is an especially good example and thus may serve as a model for future work.