Ecology and life-history of Mesonauta festivus: biological traits of a broad ranged and abundant Neotropical cichlid

Abstract

The cichlid Mesonauta festivus is common and abundant among macrophyte stands along a large geographical range of the Amazonas and Paraná-Paraguay basins, in South America. This broad geographical range highlights the species’ dispersion ability, which can be attributed to specific biological and behavioral traits. However, the dispersion ability does not account for the broad geographical range alone, as the species must be able to establish populations in a range of environments, which include marginal areas of large rivers with different water types, floodplain lakes, and small terra-firme streams. In this work we investigated the specie’s ecology, biological traits and behavior in order to understand what and how its traits may have allowed it to attain such broad geographical range and aid in establishing local populations. Regarding its dispersion ability we stress the capability of swimming in the pelagic region, which is remarkable for this species and uncommon among Neotropical cichlids. Its vagility is high even when juveniles are under parental care. Regarding population establishment, the high environmental tolerance stands out, allowing the species to live under strikingly different abiotic conditions. In addition, the small size of first sexual maturation and its capability of spawning along the whole hydrologic cycle (apparently not associated to a specific environmental cue) may also facilitate the establishment of populations into new environments. Moreover, the behavior of mimicking dead leaves, which is mainly performed by juveniles, may lessen predation pressures. Under an eco-evolutionary perspective, the traits highlighted in this work may buffer selective pressures experienced by populations in different biotic and/or abiotic conditions, which may also favor the increasing of the geographical range by allowing the evolutionary lineage to remain similar even in disconnected and/or striking different environments.