Foraging behavior of Mexican mojarra Amphilophus istlanusat potential risk from invasive fish predatorAmatitlania nigrofasciata

Characterizing the behavioral traits of Mexican mojarra juveniles may help predict their survival when facing an introduced invasive predator species like the convict cichlid fish. We predicted that individuals in the presence of convict cichlids would reduce their swimming activity and food consumption. We hypothesized that the swimming activity and the food consumed by the Mexican mojarra in two contexts with and without a potential predator threat-is related to its levels of aggressiveness. We tested this experimentally by evaluating the swimming activity and food consumption by juvenile mojarras in the presence of the invasive convict cichlid versus when they were not, and we related the consistency in the swimming activity of the Mexican mojarra juvenile with their aggressiveness. As we expected, the fish were less active when convict cichlids were present. Additionally, the swimming activity of the Mexican mojarra in the absence and presence of the invasive convict cichlid was related to aggressiveness; the individuals with the highest swimming activity and that consumed the most food was also the most aggressive. This suggests that the Mexican mojarra juvenile could suffer ecological consequences when faced with the invasive convict cichlid.