Offspring Preference for Parental Adults is Influenced by Sex and Behaviour in the Convict Cichlid

Description

This study looked at fry choice of parental figures in the convict cichlid and addressed the following questions 1) do fry prefer their parental male or their parental female (see "experiment 1" in data sheet), 2) do fry prefer their parental female or an unrelated parental female (alloparental) (see "experiment 2" in data sheet) 3) do fry choice depend on size of fry (see "experiment 3, fry choice" in data sheet), 4) do fry prefer their parental female over an unrelated non parental female (see "experiment 3, fry choice" in data sheet) 5) is female behavior (displays) affected by to the size of the choosing fry relative to the size of the alloparental female's fry ("experiment 3, display" in data sheet). All experiments were carried out in a simultaneous two choice design. Data collected included number of fry choosing one side of design or other, size of fry, and adult behavior. For the parental versus alloparental female experiments, every female had a turn in the parental condition and the alloparental condition, so female testing was organized into rounds and pitted against a female in the opposite condition. This allowed for a between subject and within subject analyses. Due to the mixed model effects nature of the experimental design, r was used to analyze displays. This data sheet is labeled "display LMM for r", and the readme file includes r code and process used.

Steps to reproduce

In the field we examined offspring preference for parents in the convict cichlid, Amatitlania nigrofasciata. We found fry preferred female over male parents so we focused on female parents and tested if fry could discern their own parent from a different parental female (i.e. alloparental female). When the fry were of mixed sizes, there was not a clear choice; we posit this was due to the behavioural response of the alloparental female. Thus, we designed a more complex choice apparatus and used both size matched and size mismatched broods to examine both female behaviour and fry preference. We presented fry with a choice of parental or alloparental females and observed both fry choice and female behaviour. When broods were size matched, alloparental females reacted similarly to parental females and fry did not show a clear preference for either female. When broods were size mismatched, alloparentals showed higher levels of aggression towards the foreign fry and the fry showed a preference for their parental female. This suggests that fry who are separated from their broods are attracted to parental females, presumably for the protection afforded if adopted. While females seem to readily accept fry of similar size to their brood, they reject fry that are larger, perhaps because these fry may have an advantage over smaller fry which has been shown in previous research.

Institutions

• Hofstra University

  New York, Hempstead
• Loyola University Maryland

  Maryland, Baltimore

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