Parental response to intruder females altered by ornamentation and mate quality in a biparental fish

Ashley R Robart and Barry Sinervo

Behavioral Ecology, 2018, vol. 29, issue 3, 701-710

Abstract: Parents jointly defend their pair-bond against females that are potential mates for the male but sexual rivals for the females. We experimentally exposed breeding pairs of convict cichlids to conspecific females that differed in their reproductive state, advertised via conspicuous ornamentation. We found parental females responded aggressively to reproductive females and that parental males also behaved aggressively, particularly when mated to smaller females. These results suggest cooperation, not conflict, between parents to address potential pair-bond threats.

Keywords: convict cichlid; female ornamentation; female intrasexual competition; mate defense; mate quality; maternal aggression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/ary028 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:29:y:2018:i:3:p:701-710.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett

More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().