I was always told in Japan that the Ayu (Plecoglossus altivelis) had a one-year life span, dying after first spawning. However, Wikipedia indicates that some individuals can make it for 2-3 years.  Whether these individuals spawn once or repeatedly, I don't know. Btw, they are traditionally caught by cormorant fishing, and are delicious as grilled snacks, but that's another story ;-)

Some killifish, such as Nothobranchius furzeri, are short lived (annual) and breed during the rainy season. See Valdesalici & Cellerino (2003) Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (Suppl.) 270, S189–S191.

Thanks Björn & Per Terje, most appreciated! Even without the fish snacks... I suspect there may be lots of fishes with this type of life history but have asked a few experts (other than you) who didn't know of any. The more I dive into the fish World, the more i realize how ignorant we are about the most basic natural history of most fishes.

My follow-up question would be: for which substrate-breeding fishes with repeated breedings in the same season (be they 'annual' or 'perennial') would individual males (and/or females) have been followed through several breeding events/the whole breeding season? As would be required to have any idea about lifetime reproductive success, or at least yearly success. I (and my coworkers) have found a few blennies for which there is some info, and two damselfishes, but that's all so far. So if anyone reads this "response to responses" and can help: please do so! (blennies and damsels, too, it may be others than the ones we know...)

Hi Trond;

In fresh water there are annual fish species in e.g. the genus Austrolebias (e.g. Garcia et al. 2018) and in Rivulidae (e.g. Azpelicueta et al. 2009).

References

Garcia et al. 2018: Hydrobiologia 809:323-337

Azpelicueta et al. 2009: Rev Suisse Zool 116:313-325.

Best wishes,

Bror Jonsson

I think a group known as Killifishes would have similar life history. They breed during a wet season then the eggs lay dormant in the mud as the ponds dry up and the adults die. I think this cycle is annual in nature. They are a freshwater species.

Besides annual killifishes, several tropical gobies (e.g. genera Eviota, Trimma) have a life span not longer than just a few months.

For instance, for the Australian species Eviota sigillata, a maximum age of 80 days, an average generation time of 49 days, and up to 7.4 generations per year, were recorded. Reference:

Depczynski, M. & Bellwood, D. R. 2005. Shortest recorded vertebrate lifespan found in a coral reef fish. Current Biology 15 (8): R288-R289.

Lots of 3-spined stickleback populations fit this pattern: females produce multiple clutches over a breeding season that are cared for by males, but very few individuals spawn in a second year.

Thanks, Neil! The life history of 3-spines confuses me a bit: if I recall right, work by Juha Merilä & colleagues show that their study populations in N Sweden/Finland (from recall) have fish that live for generally several years, whereas other data are more in line with your experience/knowledge. Seems to be huge variation. Else, I struggle to find published evidence on # repeats by individual 3-spine males (and females) - there's an old paper by Kynard, and some work by Mori, but if you know papers that report # cycles for individual(ly marked) males I would be most grateful.

Trond - the following give info on life span and reproductive output in 'annual' stickleback populations, but admittedly the number of breeding cycles has usually only been measured in females (because it's easier to count clutches, I think):

Kim, S.Y., Metcalfe, N.B., da Silva, A. & Velando, A. (2017) Thermal conditions during early life influence seasonal maternal strategies in the three-spined stickleback. BMC Ecology, 17.

Kim, S.Y., Metcalfe, N.B. & Velando, A. (2016) A benign juvenile environment reduces the strength of antagonistic pleiotropy and genetic variation in the rate of senescence. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85, 705-714.

Lee, W.S., Monaghan, P. & Metcalfe, N.B. (2012) The pattern of early growth trajectories affects adult breeding performance. Ecology, 93, 902-912.

Lee, W.S., Monaghan, P. & Metcalfe, N.B. (2013) Experimental demonstration of the growth rate - lifespan trade-off. Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences Series B, 280, 20122370.

Wootton, R.J. & Fletcher, D.A. (2009) Effect of spawning number and ration on reproductive performance of the batch-spawning three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. Journal of Fish Biology, 75, 618-629.

Hope this is of some use

Neil

Thanks a lot again, Neil! - much appreciated. It's some time since I looked into this issue but it's still highly relevant to our work. It's a pity that so few fish studies have followed individual males over several breedings (in particular in the wild), even if it's hard. Hope we'll see more of it (such work has obviously helped avian and thus general biology immensely), but fear that observing natural reproduction in marked individuals isn't fashionable enough these days... Best, TrondNeil B Metcalfe

Please, take a look at this article recently published.

http://reichardlab.eu/pdf/MR138.pdf

Thanks a lot Daniel García

Looks very interesting, from a first quick look.

Best Trond

you're welcome!

you can find more information about annual fish life cycle at:

http://reichardlab.eu/publications/killi

all the best,

Daniel

Article Life history and reproduction of Nothobranchius fishes

For example, Nothobranchius fishes are recognized as seasonal fishes, commonly also referred to as annuals, with all known species having an annual or semi-annual life cycle, a key adaptation to reproduce in the seasonally arid savannah biome characterized by the periodic drying out of their natural habitats.

I found this discussion during literature research when I was preparing review related to the short-lived fish species. This discussion really ascertained me that this topic is important and I thank to all of you who founded and participated in this discussion. Now, I can happily share the outcome with you which summarize the reported lifespans of fish species with lifespan shorter or equal to one year. Of course it is not fully exhaustive (it is probably impossible to find all topic-related studies) but it may serve as a substrate for further works.

Yours Sincerely, Jakub

Article Short-lived fishes: Annual and multivoltine strategies