Acoustic communication is now recognised as a widespread and functionally important component of fish behaviour. However, its evolutionary interpretation remains fragmented, as different types of acoustic signals are not interpreted with the same level of confidence. In particular, sounds recorded under disturbance or from hand‐held individuals are widely used in comparative studies but remain debated in evolutionary contexts....

Reproduction involves multiple complex behaviours, and the effects of familiarity on such social interactions are seldom described in fish. This is particularly true for sound production and communication within aggressive or non‐aggressive context. This study explores the effects of a common garden rearing without parental care of two closely related cichlid species (Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and black‐chinned tilapi...

Covering more than 65% of the Earth surface, the deep sea (200–11,000 m depth) is the largest biotope on Earth, yet it remains largely unexplored. The biology of its communities is still poorly understood, and many species are still to be discovered. Despite this, deep‐sea fish are already threatened by our exploitation and their conservation is hampered by a severe scarcity of data. Studies focusing on fish acoustic communica...

The term exaptation introduced by Stephen J. Gould and Elizabeth Vrba has been used infrequently. The high diversity of sound‐producing mechanisms in fishes highlights a recurrent use of this process in unrelated taxa. We propose that sonic evolution typically involves exaptations: in many fish taxa, sound production was acquired by the independent modification of existing structures with other functions. These structures were...

Passive acoustic recording ( PAR ) systems are non‐invasive and allow researchers to collect data over large spatial and/or temporal scales. As fish sounds are species‐specific and repetitive, PAR can provide a large amount of data about spatio‐temporal variation in fish distribution and behaviors. Ophidion rochei , found in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, is a sand‐dwelling species, meaning that the behavior of this cryptic...