Re-articulating the articles

Abstract Pelvicachromis pulcher is a small African cichlid which breeds in holes. Males may either reproduce monogamously (pair males), polygynously (harem males), or be tolerated as helpers in a harem territory (satellite males). These helpers share in defence of the territory against conspecifics, heterospecific competitors and predators. There are two male colour morphs that are fixed for life and are apparently genetically deter-mined. These dier in their potential mating strategy. Red morph males may become harem owners, while yellow morph males may become satellite males, and males of both morphs may alternatively pair up mo-nogamously. We compared the reproductive eort and success of these three male reproductive strategies. Ef-fort was measured as attack rates, time expenditure and the risk of being injured or killed when attacking com-petitors or predators of three sympatric fish species. Reproductive success was measured by observing how many eggs were fertilized by each male when this was possible, and by using genetic markers. The number of fry surviving to independence of parental care was used as a criterion of success. The reproductive success of harem males was 3.3 times higher than that of pair males and 7 times higher than that of the average satellite male. Dominant satellite males, however, were as suc-cessful as monogamous pair males, using the measure of fertilized eggs. To our knowledge, this has not been found previously in any fish species. Both harem and pair males had lower parental defence costs per sired ospring, however, than males using the alternative satellite tactic. Defence eort was significantly related to the risk of injury. Key words Alternative mating tactics á Cichlids á Reproductive eort/success á Genetic marker