ArticleCommunications biology2025
An alternative pattern of head expansion during feeding in cichlids.
Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Experimental evidence for a suction-biting performance tradeoff in Mesoamerican cichlids.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- An alternative pattern of head expansion during feeding in cichlids.Communications biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Specialized feeding methods evolved repeatedly from a suction-feeding strategy in cichlids. How algae-eaters altered their suction mechanics to transport detached algae efficiently, and how this may hinder capturing larger prey, remains unclear. Here, we study the kinematics and time-resolved volumetrics of a piscivore, an algae picker/nibbler, and an algae scraper from Lake Malawi feeding on attached algae tablets and free pieces of shrimp. Algae specialists lack the common anterior-to-posterior expansion and compression waves of the head, instead exhibiting a synchronous expansion pattern. This alternative pattern may allow algae retention due to low-amplitude dilation of the gill rakers, maximized suction flow speeds for a given local expansion amplitude, and rapid sequences of suction cycles. The trade-off between powerful suction and efficient feeding on algae may explain why algae scrapers' opportunistic switching to suction feeding can only be successful on easy prey, and may have impacted cichlid diversification and trophic niche constraining.
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Registered trials
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