Competition between Color Morphs of the Polychromatic Midas Cichlid Cichlasoma citrinellum

Competition between Color Morphs of the Polychromatic Midas Cichlid Cichlasoma citrinellum.

The Midas cichlid, Cichlasoma citrinellum, is a polychromatic fish that occurs in Nicaragua. All of these fish start life as normally colored, cryptic individuals. In some populations a few fish change into conspicuously colored morphs, most frequently gold. When kept in unmixed color groups, golds and normals grow at the same rate; but when they are mixed, growth of the golds becomes faster an...

Competition Between Color Morphs of the Midas Cichlid, Cichlasoma citrinellum, in Lake Jiloá, Nicaragua

Dummy-Elicited Aggressive Behavior in the Polychromatic Midas Cichlid

Cost of morphological specialization: feeding performance of the two morphs in the trophically polymorphic cichlid fish, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cichlasoma citrinellum</Emphasis>

The feeding performance on soft and hard prey of two morphs of the trophically polymorphic Neotropical cichlid fish, Cichlasoma citrinellum, was investigated in the laboratory. The molariform morphs, specialized to feed on hard prey, are able to crack snail shells that are twice as hard as those cracked by the papilliform morphs. During ecological bottlenecks in food resources this ability shou...

Testing the carotenoid trade-off hypothesis in the polychromatic Midas cichlid, Amphilophus citrinellus.

Many animals use carotenoid pigments derived from their diet for coloration and immunity. The carotenoid trade-off hypothesis predicts that, under conditions of carotenoid scarcity, individuals may be forced to allocate limited carotenoids to either coloration or immunity. In polychromatic species, the pattern of allocation may differ among individuals. We tested the carotenoid trade-off hypoth...