Cichlids, fishes from any of the 1,300 species under the family Cichlidae, are popular among casual collectors and scientists - with researchers like Jimena Golcher-Benavides focusing their work on these species.
Golcher-Benavides is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at the CE Wagner Lab, University of Wyoming. Together with her collaborators, include Dr. Catherine E. Wagner, she has been working on the cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika since 2015. For her Ph.D. study, she aims to understand the evolutionary drivers leading certain phenotypes to adjust in their environments, gaining insights as to fish diversity and future variations.
The Variety of Cichlids
"Surveying fishes while scuba-diving in Lake Tanganyika has allowed me to gain understanding on complex species interactions, the role resource-rich environments play in supporting greater diversity," she explained in an interview with Forbes' Andrew Wight. However, the Costa Rican scientist lamented their dwindling habitats for fishes because of climate warming, putting species and the human communities dependent on them at risk.
"My favorite thing about cichlids is their unusual behaviors!" Golcher-Benavides said. There have been recorded instances of cichlid population feigning death, as reported in a group of Yellowjacket cichlid, or Parachromis friedrichsthalii. She noted that other species enlist help from other species for protection or for mating.
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Her ongoing work is led by Dr. Ismael Kimirei from the Tanzanian Fisheries Research Institute (AFIRI) with support from The Nature Conservancy - a charitable environmental group based in Arlington, Virginia - fisheries team in Lake Tanganyika.
Lake Tanganyika, the focus of Golcher-Benavides' work, is considered as an African Great Lake and is the second-oldest and the second-deepest freshwater lake in the world after Lake Baikal in Russia. Its high-altitude location, coupled with its depth and mountainous location in a known volcanic area has created a complex profile for the lake.
Cichlids in Environmental Studies
A recent study used geometric morphometrics to compare the changes in cichlid fishes from before and after the Tocantins River in Brazil was dammed. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, together with Brazilian specialists, compared fishes from the Tucurui reservoir with samples preserved in a museum collection 34 years apart.
Craig Albertson, one of the authors of the study, noted that Cichlid fishes remain a source of interest among researchers for its inclination towards rapid morphological changes. He noted that these fishes can demonstrate alterations in a timeframe as short as a season.
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Researchers were able to establish that while the construction of the dam, which changed the water quality inside the man-made reservoir, was not the only factor to have contributed to these changes in local cichlid populations, it was an important part of the changes in the fishes.
An earlier study, made in 2007, strongly suggested that male cichlids can observe, and subsequently identify, their rank in a population - sizing up other fishes and ranking them by strength from watching previous territorial fights. Scientists from Stanford University claimed that their work provides the first direct evidence that fishes, like humans, can use logical reasoning and establish social rankings.
Russell Fernald, biological sciences professor and co-author of the study, said that "male cichlids are constantly trying to ascend socially by beating each other up." This makes it necessary for these fishes to know who to fight later on.
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