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Courting and fighting quietly: a lack of acoustic signals in a cooperative Tanganyikan cichlid fish

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Abstract

Research on cichlid fish has revealed remarkable cross-species variation in social and reproductive behavior. Recently, several species of African cichlids have been shown to produce acoustic signals, typically in conjunction with the visual behavioral displays associated with mate choice and competition. However, the recent research conducted on cichlid sound production has focused largely on polygynous cichlids with female care and on species from Lake Malawi and Lake Victoria. In this study, we examined whether sound production occurs in a group-living, cooperative, biparental cichlid species, Neolamprologus pulcher, endemic to Lake Tanganyika, the oldest of the African Great Lakes. Neolamprologus pulcher is a highly social cichlid that lives in complex groups that are socially stratified. We investigated whether N. pulcher performed acoustic signals to each other either during competitive resource contests between size-matched males, or during courtship between male and female breeding pairs. Although the fish displayed prototypical visual displays of aggression, submission, and courtship in the appropriate context, we found no evidence of vocal sound production. Our findings suggest that cichlid sound production was not essential for the evolution of complex social behavior.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Fizza Jafri for assistance with data collection, Constance O’Connor for assistance with statistical analysis, and Adam Reddon for helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was funded by a Discovery and Equipment grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and an Ontario Innovation Trust and Canadian Foundation for Innovation award provided to SB. KP is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. SB is supported by the Canada Research Chair Program.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Katarzyna Pisanski, Susan E. Marsh-Rollo & Sigal Balshine

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  1. Katarzyna Pisanski
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  2. Susan E. Marsh-Rollo
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  3. Sigal Balshine
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Correspondence to Katarzyna Pisanski.

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Guest editors: S. Koblmüller, R. C. Albertson, M. J. Genner, K. M. Sefc & T. Takahashi / Advances in Cichlid Research: Behavior, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Pisanski, K., Marsh-Rollo, S.E. & Balshine, S. Courting and fighting quietly: a lack of acoustic signals in a cooperative Tanganyikan cichlid fish. Hydrobiologia 748, 87–97 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-1933-2

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