A new study shows that courtship rituals evolve exceptionally fast among cichlid fish in Lake Malawi. Only in shallow waters where the light is good, males attract females by building sand castles.

Cichlids are one of the largest and strangest groups of vertebrate fish — fish with backbones — on Earth. They’re popular as pets and farmed in aquaculture, and scientists have been studying them ...

The biological family Cichlidaea is one of the most fascinating examples of animal evolution on Earth. Convict cichlids are a widespread, well-known species within this unique group. Convict cichlids ...

The spectacular radiation of 2,000 species of cichlid fishes in East Africa is an ideal model system and natural laboratory for studying evolutionary processes. The explosive speciation of cichlids is ...

New research shows that courtship rituals evolve very fast in cichlid fish in Lake Malawi. Whenever species evolve to feed at different depths, their courtship evolves as well. In the shallows where ...