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The cichlid Neolamprologus multifasciatus is among the smallest fish in Lake Tanganyika but can dominate areas of the lake floor, living in stable territorial groups with clear memberships that persist for years. This fish is found on 'shell bed' habitats, regions where vast numbers of empty snail shells have accumulated over millennia, preserved by the lake's alkaline waters. Group members take shelter inside the shells that they dig up from the lake floor, aggregating them within their territories with each defending its own shell fiercely, even against much larger rivals, while jointly defending the overall group territory from outsiders. Although miniscule in stature, this fish displays a rich, complex social life in which conflict and cooperation play out against the backdrop of extreme population densities, predation threats, resource defence and ingroup/outgroup interactions. The presence of these fish also imprints itself on the landscape, where their excavation efforts create a cratered, almost lunar landscape on the lake floor, the result of society level territoriality. In the ancient waters of this Lake, these fish are furious with activity, constantly tending to their shelters and engaging in social interactions comparable to the complexity and subtlety of many societies in larger taxa. (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/).

Nyckelord

cichlid; fish; group; social; society

Publicerad i

Animal Behaviour
2026, volym: 231, artikelnummer: 123407
Utgivare: ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

SLU författare

UKÄ forskningsämne

Zoologi
Etologi

Publikationens identifierare

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123407

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/145536