# The diversity of male nuptial coloration leads to species



## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

The diversity of male nuptial coloration leads to species diversity in Lake Victoria cichlids
Ryutaro Miyagi1 and Yohey Terai2*
1 Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minamiosawa, Hachioji,Tokyo 197-0397, Japan
2Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University for AdvancedStudies (Sokendai), Shonan Village, Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan
(Received 16 April 2013, accepted 24 May 2013)
The amazing coloration shown by diverse cichlid fish not only fascinates aquarium keepers, but also receives great attention from biologists interested in speciation because of its recently-revealed role in their adaptive radiation in an African lake. We review the important role of coloration in the speciation and adaptive evolution of Lake Victoria cichlids, which have experienced adaptive radiation during a very short evolutionary period. Mature male cichlids display their colors during mate choice. The color of their skin reflects light, and the reflected light forms a color signal that is received by the visual system of females. The adaptive divergence of visual perceptions shapes and diverges colorations, to match the adapted visual perceptions. The divergence of visual perception and coloration indicates that the divergence of color signals causes reproductive isolation between species, and this process leads to speciation. Differences in color signals among coexisting species act to maintain reproductive isolation by preventing hybridization. Thus, the diversity of coloration has caused speciation and has maintained species diversity in Lake Victoria cichlids.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Visually I truly believe that male Victorians are some of the most beautiful fish around. I have owned a couple of species and all of them have shown incredible coloration in the males during courtship. I shot this photo yesterday and was marveling at how stunning the range of colors were (juvenile male in this shot). This photo has been cropped but is untouched other than that. I am always in awe of the Victorian males in my tanks. Thanks for sharing this info Samaki.

Haplochromis sp. 'ruby' (???? I'm not sure if that is correct name currently with regard to this species. I received them as H. sp. "ruby green")


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## joescaper1 (Feb 14, 2013)

samaki,

Through this review, is there concensus that due to the female perception of color diversity, aquarium hybridization is minimized or eliminated as it is in the lakes?

Joe


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi the fish is named H.sp"ruby green" or sp "ruby" it is the same fish cichlid gal, no worries for this  
Joe, I would put a little thing on the table, we know that for sure hybridisation is a part of the adaptative radiation in the victorian cichlids flock, it is prooved by many articles showing that there has been many events of hybridisation during the time, when the level was down, there was extinctions, when it refilled, the explosive radiation took place.. with many species crossed as isolated water bodies entered into contact, this with new niches to occupy favorised hybridisation amongst species, this is the first point.
In the wild, hybrids are more or less isolated reproductively with the parents species because of their original pattern(normally the hybrid is half the way the parents morphology and color) and has a greater plasticity to exploit new food sources, this explains in part why the species flock in lake victoria has emerged so rapidly(but hybridisation also occured in Tanganiyka and Malawi lakes) Hybridisation in the wild is a natural process that also leads to species diversity.
The sensibility to certains spectrum of color in the female help to keep reproductive isolation but this is not the miracle recipe lol as in aquarium, yu maintain fishes in a little space that has nothing to see with the unlimited space in nature, so yu create something artificial in a certain sens, but if some rules are respected, fishes of the victorian flock can be kept in comunity tank only dedicated to these species without fearing too much hybridisation  
xris


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## joescaper1 (Feb 14, 2013)

I think I see. Our (multispecies)tanks create extreme conditions by mimicing the pockets during low water periods. In the wild this leads to new species but in our tanks we are just ostracized


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

joescaper1 said:


> I think I see. Our (multispecies)tanks create extreme conditions by mimicing the pockets during low water periods. In the wild this leads to new species but in our tanks we are just ostracized


Sort of, though I'm guessing these "pockets" are much larger than the 100 gallon range.


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## samaki (Oct 25, 2002)

Hi here's an article showing how differnet an hybrid can be from the parents species
http://www.fun-morph.ugent.be/?q=node/61
You can see that the morphology is at the middle of the parents, this is a laboritory hybrid but this is the same in nature  
xris :thumb:


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