The nesting and spawning activity is so conspicuous that fish-watchers and photographers can be guaranteed to observe nests and guardian males in less than 20 feet of water, and are often fortunate enough to witness spawning itself. As an avid snorkeler growing up in southern California, I spent hours every spring and summer watching the garibaldi perform their annual ritual in the clear waters off Santa Catalina Island, Laguna Beach, and La Jolla. So, when it came time to choose a project for my doctoral research at Oregon State University, garibaldi seemed like an obvious choice. I returned to Big Fisherman Cove on Santa Catalina's leeward side and began what has become a ten-year study on the reproductive behavior of the world's largest damselfish. Recalling that only a small fraction of nests I observed actually had eggs and that males were usually unsuccessful in their courtship efforts, I was most interested in how females select among the multitude of potential suitors.
Females are picky and the rich get richer.
Picky Females One of the conveniences of studying this species proved to be that females searching for males are very conspicuous, swimming in an erratic fashion with all fins erect. Thus, I could follow these females and observe them as they visited prospective mates. However, one of the inconveniences turned out to be that females seemed to spend an eternity making up their minds. Females shuttled back and forth between their home territory and the nests of males, rejecting what seemed to me to be perfectly good nests and males, while I became numb from the cold water and sometimes dangerously low on air. While my observations were suggestive, experiments were needed to confirm that the eggs themselves indeed make a difference.