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Population-specific co-evolution of offspring anti-predator competence and parental brood defence in Nicaraguan convict cichlids

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Abstract

Parental care in fishes is a three-way interaction among brood predators, parental brood defence, and the escaping ability of the developing young. Convict cichlids are Neotropical freshwater fish with prolonged biparental brood defence of their eggs and free-swimming larvae. In a previous study, developmental timing of changes in larval swimming performance was correlated with larval skeletal ossification and biparental brood defence in convict cichlids in the Río Cabuyo, a stream in Costa Rica (Wisenden et al. 2015). Here, we repeat this study on a population of convict cichlids from Laguna de Xiloá, a volcanic crater lake in Nicaragua. We found that fish from Laguna de Xiloá also showed correlations among swimming performance and skeletal ossification of the larvae, and brood defence by the parents. However, in Laguna de Xiloá the developmental timing of these events was delayed relative to the Río Cabuyo population. The population difference between Costa Rica and Nicaragua could be an effect of genetic divergence or an artefact of phenotypic plasticity between lab-reared fish (Costa Rica) versus wild-caught fish (Nicaragua) for ossification scores. To resolve this question we repeated study using lab-reared fish of brood stock from Laguna de Xiloá. Comparing among the lab-reared Costa Rican fish, and lab-reared and field-collected Nicaraguan fish, we found that the timing of ossification was significantly delayed for both Nicaraguan samples relative to the Costa Rican samples. These shifts likely reflect population differences in selection on anti-predator competence of the young and, consequently, parental brood defence. These data indicate that larval ontogenetic development, anti-predator performance and parental care co-evolve with site-specific ecological differences.

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Acknowledgments

Field data in Costa Rica were collected under MINAE Pasaporte de Investigaciónes number 00058. Special thanks to Celso Alvarado and Henry Ramirez of the Ministerio del Ambiente y Energía, Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación Arenal Tempisque (ACT MINAE). We are very grateful to Ken R McKaye and Glenn Campbell (The Scuba Shack, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua) for their generous donation of time and in-kind equipment, lodging and staff, without which our efforts at Laguna de Xiloá would not have been possible. Ossification and startle responses were enabled by research grants from the College of Social and Natural Sciences, MSUM to Brian Wisenden, and the Dille Fund for Excellence (MSUM) to Brian Wisenden and Ellen Brisch. Anusha Mishra, Bree Hamann and Joe Mullins were critical to the early development of the methods used in the final version of the study linking skeletal ossification to escape responses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biosciences Department, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN, 56563, USA

    Brian D. Wisenden, Anthony D. Stumbo, Daniel C. McEwen, Kurtis McIntire, Justin Scheierl, Heather North, Janna Gilbertson, Diana Grant, Frantz Joseph, Emily Mammenga, Rachel Walsh & Ellen Brisch

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, 58102, USA

    Jessica Aasand

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  1. Brian D. Wisenden
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  2. Anthony D. Stumbo
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  3. Daniel C. McEwen
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  7. Heather North
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  11. Emily Mammenga
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  13. Ellen Brisch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brian D. Wisenden.

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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. This work was conducted under protocol 07-R/T-BIO-018-N-N-C of the Minnesota State University Moorhead Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Wisenden, B.D., Stumbo, A.D., McEwen, D.C. et al. Population-specific co-evolution of offspring anti-predator competence and parental brood defence in Nicaraguan convict cichlids. Environ Biol Fish 99, 325–333 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-016-0476-y

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