Sex-specific prioritization of parental roles by the convict cichlid is differentially affected by brood predator threat

What is it about?

Parents are often faced with many tasks, and they must balance and prioritize parental care activities. Mothers and fathers may differ in their prioritization of conflicting behaviors and compensation for changes in their mates’ behavior. Using the biparental convict cichlid fish as a model, I explored behavior when parents needed to retrieve young that were displaced from the nest in addition to defending against an intruder. The size and location of the potential predator was varied to determine how threat-level influenced prioritization decisions. Males tended to be consistent in their contributions to offspring, regardless of the threat to young. Female parents, however, were much more variable in their care and adjusted their aggression with the size of the intruder and adjusted retrieval in relation to the proximity of the offspring.

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Photo by Karim Sakhibgareev on Unsplash

Photo by Karim Sakhibgareev on Unsplash