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Carotenoid availability and tradeoffs in female convict cichlids, a reverse sexually-dichromatic fish

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Abstract

Carotenoid pigments have myriad functions in fish, including coloration and immunity. The “carotenoid trade-off hypothesis” posits that dietary limitation of carotenoids imposes constraints on animals to allocate to one function at the expense of another. This hypothesis rarely has been tested in fish. We quantified tissue carotenoids in breeding and non-breeding female convict cichlids in Lake Xiloá, Nicaragua. This species is reverse sexually dichromatic such that females possess carotenoid-based coloration that males lack. We also collected algae samples near nest sites to assess carotenoid availability, recorded water depth, and examined cichlids’ behavioral interactions with pair mates, conspecifics, heterospecific competitors, and predators. Each of these, we predicted, would mediate potential carotenoid trade-offs. We found that non-breeding females had significantly higher levels of carotenoids in their integument, liver, and gonads compared to breeding fish. We found that algae and total carotenoids declined with depth across our study transects at 9, 11, 13, and 15 m, but the concentration of carotenoids (ng carotenoid g−1 algae, or algal quality) did not vary with depth. Furthermore, relationships among carotenoid concentrations of the three tissue types did not vary with depth, and female color status (orange or not) was not affected by behavioral interactions with other community members, reproductive status, or water depth. Our results support previous studies showing that carotenoid pigmentation may serve a signal function that facilitates the establishment of non-breeding females within the breeding population. Our study also uncovered no evidence indicating that carotenoids are limiting in the diet of breeding female convict cichlids.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to K. McKaye for the opportunity to use his facilities at Lake Xiloá and to M. McKaye, E. Van den Berghe, and L. Canda for logistical support. The authors also would like to thank the editor and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments.

Funding

This work was supported by a National Science Foundation award to RLE (IOS-1051682) and EDC (IOS-1051598). EDC also received funding from Office of the Dean of Faculty at Amherst College, including the Faculty Research Award Program.

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Contributions

EDC and RLE designed the study, organized the field and laboratory research, secured funding for the project, conducted data collection in the field and laboratory, and collaborated to generate the manuscript. CTA, MKM and BBN assisted with field and laboratory data collection and with organizing the manuscript. ACB participated in organizing the field research and conducted carotenoid assays in the laboratory.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ethan D. Clotfelter.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest or competing interests.

Ethics approval

This research was supported by a permit issued by the Nicaragua Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA) to RLE and was approved by the University of Alabama IACUC (Protocol #10–345) and the Amherst College IACUC (Protocol #2014–3).

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All authors approved of the final version of this manuscript.

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This study did not employ any custom code or software applications outside of the statistical packages described in the Methods section.

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Earley, R.L., Anderson, C.T., Moscicki, M.K. et al. Carotenoid availability and tradeoffs in female convict cichlids, a reverse sexually-dichromatic fish. Environ Biol Fish 103, 1541–1552 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-01036-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-01036-w

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