Luli Ramirez

 

Research: Behavioral ecology of South American cichlids

I am doing my masters research on the reproductive behavior of southern South American cichlids. I am especially interested in northeast Argentinean cichlids. Some of the cichlid genera that we can find there are: Gymnogeophagus (eartheaters), Crenicichla (pike cichlids) and Cichlasoma.

South American cichlids present an amazing diversity of reproductive behaviors including different mating systems and several forms of parental care.

Even though substrate guarding is the most widespread form of parental care among South American cichlids, we can find several different variants of mouthbrooding. Delayed mouthbrooding, for example, could be particularly interesting in terms of the evolution of parental care.

Some fishes of South America:

Cichlasoma dimerus

Crenicichla spp.

 

Luli joined the lab in January of 2006.

CSUS BIO SCI