FISH may not drive fast cars, but they do seem to have ways to show off their sexual prowess. Male cichlids (Cyathopharynx furcifer) in Lake Tanganyika, Zambia, signal their place in the pecking order by building mating craters.
Males spend hours building and tending their craters, which appear to serve no purpose other than to provide a place to mate. They vary in diameter from 20 to 50 centimetres, with the larger ones generally belonging to larger, healthier fish.
Franziska Schädelin and Michael Taborsky from the University of Berne in Switzerland reduced the size of some craters and enlarged others.…
