ABSTRACT
Parents play a key role in promoting the survival of their offspring, yet care is often given at the expense of other activities. Therefore, the optimal parenting strategy can shift depending on the parental environment. This is especially true in species with biparental care, as parents must account for their own environment as well as the motivations and capabilities of their partner. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying parental behaviour can constrain how a parent manages the demands of parenting. Conversely, selection on parental behaviours might facilitate the evolution of mechanisms that allow parents to manage these demands. A key question then arises: when faced with the challenges of parenting, how do parents successfully raise offspring? Anemonefishes provide unique opportunities to explore this and related questions as their tractability in the laboratory and field allows for comprehensive studies into the proximate and ultimate causes of parental care. This chapter begins by describing well-known variations in parental behaviours of anemonefishes. Next, recent advances in our understanding of plasticity and personality of parental care, negotiations between parents, and the proximate mechanisms underlying care are discussed. Lastly, promising avenues are highlighted for future research into the proximate and ultimate causes of parental care in anemonefishes.
