Male mate choice for a female ornament in a monogamous cichlid fish, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi

Male ram cichlid, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi , spent significantly more time associating with animated female images compared to static images of the same female, indicating that males of the species reliably respond to computer‐animated images of conspecific females. Female M. ramirezi temporarily display a pink‐coloured belly, and this study showed that males spent significantly more time associating with animated female images displaying a pink‐coloured belly compared to animated female images with pink belly colour removed. This is the first study to report male mate choice in M. ramirezi , a neotropical monogamous dwarf cichlid.