Brood parasitism of an open‐water spawning cichlid by the cuckoo catfish
The cuckoo catfish Synodontis multipunctatus and S. grandiops are endemic to Lake Tanganyika and the only known nonavian vertebrates that exhibit obligate interspecific brood parasitism. Seven maternal mouth‐brooding cichlid fish species are reported to be natural hosts of the parasitic catfish and...
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Published in | Journal of fish biology Vol. 96; no. 6; pp. 1538 - 1542 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford, UK
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.06.2020
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The cuckoo catfish Synodontis multipunctatus and S. grandiops are endemic to Lake Tanganyika and the only known nonavian vertebrates that exhibit obligate interspecific brood parasitism. Seven maternal mouth‐brooding cichlid fish species are reported to be natural hosts of the parasitic catfish and share a common reproductive behaviour that the catfish exploits: cichlid females spawn eggs on the bottom, allowing the catfish female to place her eggs near the cichlid eggs, and the cichlid females collect the catfish eggs by mouth together with their own eggs. However, so far it has not been reported that the cuckoo catfish exploit different spawning behaviours. The genus Cyprichromis consists of five maternal mouth‐brooding species endemic to Lake Tanganyika, most of which spawn and collect eggs in open water. This study reports that the cuckoo catfish also parasitizes the open‐water spawning Cyprichromis coloratus, although it may not be a regular host. |
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Bibliography: | Funding information The study was funded by Grants‐in‐Aid for Young Scientists (20770065) and for Scientific Research (nos. 26291078 and 18H02499) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0022-1112 1095-8649 |
DOI: | 10.1111/jfb.14350 |