Colour changing in Apistogramma hippolytae

[a.d.wood]

Raoni Rosa Rodrigues, Lucélia Nobre Carvalho, Jansen Zuanon and Kleber Del-Claro. (2009). Color changing and behavioral context in the Amazonian Dwarf Cichlid Apistogramma hippolytae (Perciformes). Neotropical Ichthyology, 7(4):641-646.

Abstract:

Animal coloration has many functions, and fishes are noted among vertebrates for presenting a wide variety of color patterns. Although in marine fishes the relationship between body coloration and behavioral context is well documented, there’s not much information about freshwater fishes. Here we describe color patterns displayed by the dwarf cichlid Apistogramma hippolytae and suggest that these patterns are dependent on different social and behavioral settings. Field observations were conducted underwater in a pond in Central Amazonia, Brazil. We recorded six body coloration patterns related to seven different kinds of behavioral activities: foraging, resting, reproductive and agonistic displays, aggression (attacking and fleeing) and parental care. Changes in coloration occur rapidly and take only a few seconds. Females on parental care exhibited a unique pattern that are more persistent and probably manifests more slowly. In the shallow and clear waters of the natural environment of this dwarf cichlid, color communication seems to constitute an efficient way to display information about individual mood, social status and reproductive readiness, contributing to minimize loss of energy in unnecessary interactions.

Full paper download from here:

http://www.ufrgs.br/ni/vol7num4/v07n4a13.pdf

Happy reading

Andrew

 

[Bill Phillips]

Not wishing to detract or anything negative but I wonder how many hobbyists have already observed this from behaviour in our tanks.

 

[Mike Wise]

Most of us could have, but don't take the time to sit quietly in front of a tank for several hours just observing. Koslowski (2002) describes in detail the reproductive behavior of A. commbrae. He set up a video camera for hours to capture everything. It might be interesting to do similar behavioral studies on other fish species.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Thanks Andrew, it's quite an interesting paper. I agree that they are things that many of us will have observed, but there isn't a great deal published on Apistogrammas, particularly compared to rift lake cichlids.
cheers Darrel

 

[Apistomaster]

I have lost my reference books which had the names of the authors but back in the '50's and '60's a lot of studies were carried out by animal behavioralists who used Nannacara anomala extensively to study their changing color patterns and how their fry took their cues from them to stop feeding and schooling and dive for the bottom and hold still if the female was alarmed.
Nanacara anomala was a popular species to use in these studies.
It think Konrad Lorenz was among the better known scientists.
Hans Frey was another, I believe.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Thanks Larry, I knew that there were a lot of papers on aggression in Nannacara, but I didn't realise about the earlier ones on Nannacara behaviour.

Some of the really interesting ones look to be by P. Kuenzer, for example - "Experiments on the releasing and transformation of the brood care phase in Nannacara anomala (Cichlidae) females" (pub. in 1974), unfortunately only available in the German language original.

The ones I was aware of (from reading Barlow's very interesting book "The Cichlid Fishes, Natures Grand Experiment in Evolution") are the papers on Nannacara aggression and "Game theory", starting from:
J. Maynard Smith and G. R. Price (1973), "The logic of animal conflicts". Nature 246 , pp. 15–18.

and including the much referenced.

M. Enquist, O. Leimar, T. Ljungberg, Y. Mallner and N. Segerdahl, (1990) "A test of the sequential assessment game: fighting in the cichlid fish Nannacara anomala". Animal Behaviour 40, pp. 1–14.

cheers Darrel