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This study tested if convict cichlids (Amatitlania siquia) with prior predator experience could socially transfer their predator knowledge to their offspring. Prior to reproduction, pairs were assigned to either an experimental or control associative learning treatment, and given novel predator odour from a wolf cichlid (Parachromis dovii) paired with either alarm cue or water respectively. We hypothesized that upon re-exposure to the odour, experimental pairs would socially transfer their acquired predator knowledge to their naïve offspring, which in turn would exhibit antipredator behaviour. While fry from both treatment groups did not show a difference in shoal formation, there is some evidence to suggest a trend in the experimental group regarding parental ability to transfer information to offspring and influence shoal behaviour. When tested individually, experimental fry decreased their activity more than control fry in the presence of the predator odour. This study provides evidence of a unique form of predator learning between parents and offspring, suggesting that biparental care may also serve to provide offspring with information about the habitat into which they are born.

Mobile young under parental care have a high potential for intermixing with other broods, which potentially increases the costs to the foster parents. Here, we examined for the first time the genetic composition of wild-caught broods of the convict cichlid (Amatitlania siquia), a socially monogamous biparental fish, for evidence of brood mixing and adoption. Our microsatellite genotyping data revealed that 79% of broods contained adopted young. Moreover, 25% of broods contained adopted sibsets likely arising from extra-pair matings, a phenomenon hitherto not documented for this species. Overall, adopted foreign fry and host fry in mixed broods were generally different in body length, as would be expected if they have different parents. However, fry from possible extra-pair matings were similar in body length to host fry, suggesting that they are of similar age. Our results are important because they reveal a very high prevalence and degree of brood mixing, and indicate that social monogamy does not necessarily lead to genetic monogamy in the convict cichlid in nature. These findings raise questions about potential brood-mixing mechanisms and the reproductive ecology (especially opportunities for polygamy in nature) of this important model species in the study of animal behaviour.

The cues associated with social familiarity and genetic relatedness and how they interact to influence the formation of social associations among individuals, and thus group composition and dynamics, is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the concurrent effects of social familiarity and kinship on social affiliations in free-swimming convict cichlid fish young or ‘fry’ (Amatitlania siquia) by pitting the cues of social familiarity and kinship against each other in a four-way choice apparatus. Individual focal fish were given a simultaneous choice to associate (‘shoal’) with conspecifics that were either socially familiar and kin (full sibs), socially unfamiliar and kin, socially familiar and not kin, or socially unfamiliar and not kin. Stimulus shoal preference differed depending on the body length of the focal fish; smaller fry exhibited no preference, whereas larger (more mobile) fry significantly preferred to associate with familiar kin. In the convict cichlid system, where brood mixing occurs in the wild, a preference to associate with familiar kin may confer fitness benefits to individuals, especially when fry become more mobile as they grow and encounter predators more often. Our results contribute to further our understanding of the roles of familiarity and kinship in the formation of social associations in the convict cichlid in particular and in animals in general.