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...

An assessment is made of the repeatability of parasite community structure in space for a marine fish, and in space and time for a freshwater fish from south-eastern Mexico. The marine fish species was the red grouper, Epinephelus morio (collected from 9 localities), and the freshwater species was the cichlid, Cichlasoma urophthalmus (collected from 6 localities: including monthly at 2 localiti...

Central American cichlids allied to the genus "Cichlasoma" are thought to be of South American ancestry. The group has apparently undergone extensive morphological, ecological, and behavioral differentiation in Central America following colonization. Uncertainties regarding the systematics of the group and the timing of colonization complicate interpretation of the biological history of cichlid...

We report a negative correlation between the weight of a female convict cichlid, Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum, and the magnitude of her defence against a model brood predator for a brood reduced to 100 eggs. We account for this relationship by the fact that a larger female is more likely to spawn a larger number of eggs than is a smaller female, making a fixed number of eggs relatively less valuab...

Fish that are colored in nature often acquire faded coloration under intensive culture conditions. Experiments adding top-coated algae to the diets of ornamental fish have resulted in color enhancement. Freshwater red velvet swordtails Xiphophorus helleri, rainbowfish Pseudomugil furcatus, and topaz cichlids Cichlasoma myrnae became significantly more intensely colored when fed a diet containin...

BACKGROUND Biosynthesis of nanoparticles has received increasing attention due to the growing need to develop safe, time-effective and environmentally friendly technologies for nano-materials synthesis. This paper reports the one pot green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the leaf bud extract of a mangrove plant, Rhizophora mucronata and their antimicrobial effects against aquati...