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© 1993 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Visual information, resource value, and sequential assessment in convict cichlid (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum) contests

Ernest R. Keeley and James W. A. Grant

Department of Biology, Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve Boulevard West, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8, Canada

ABSTRACT

We staged contests between convict cichlids (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum) that were matched for size and gender to test the influence of prior information and resource value on the duration and structure of fights. The contestants were separated before the contest by either clear or opaque dividers to allow or prevent visual assessment, respectively. Contests were shorter in the "clear" than in the "opaque" treatment, suggesting that visual assessment occurred. The duration of lateral display, a noncontact display, was shorter in the clear than in the opaque treatment, but the treatments did not differ significantly in the duration of three contact displays (biting, mouth wrestling, and circling). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that lateral display provides primarily visual information, probably about body size, whereas the other behavior patterns provide primarily nonvisual information, probably about strength. Second contests between the same pair of fish were shorter than first contests, suggesting that the information acquired during the first contest made it easier to resolve the second. After the subordinate fish from the second contest was given access to a mate, it fought more persistently so that third contests were longer than second contests. Our results support the predictions of the sequential assessment model.

Key words: assessment, contest theory, convict cichlids, fighting ability, resource value, squential assessment[Behav Ecol 4:345–349 (1993)].


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