Coloration reflects behavioural types in the convict cichlid, Amatitlania siquia C  ecile Schweitzer * ,S  ebastien Motreuil, François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont UMR CNRS 6282 Biog eosciences, Equipe Ecologie Evolutive, Universit e de Bourgogne, Dijon, France article info Article history: Received 21 January 2015 Initial acceptance 16 February 2015 Final acceptance 13 April 2015 Published online MS. number: 15-00055R Keywords: Amatitlania siquia behavioural syndrome behavioural type coloration fish personality Interindividual behavioural differences, consistent over time and across situations, are frequently related to differences in reproductive success, susceptibility to disease and competitive ability. The behavioural phenotype of a conspecific is likely to affect the outcome of a social interaction, so an individual must be able to accurately assess behavioural phenotypes in order to optimize behavioural responses during mate choice, cooperative relationships and agonistic interactions. However, behavioural assessment based on dyadic interactions in different contexts can be costly because it may require significant time, increase the risk of predation and often necessitates special cognitive abilities. Different colour cues are associated with different life history strategies in many species, so coloration might also correlate with behavioural phenotype. Thus, conspecifics could use coloration as a single cue for the mediation of social interactions. We investigated the relationship between personality and coloration in the monogamous, biparental convict cichlid. This species has black melanin-based stripes with interindividual variation in the in- tensity of these stripes. In addition, females have bright orange spots on their abdomens. Using repeatable measures of boldness, exploration and aggressiveness, we were able to define a behavioural syndrome and quantified the behavioural type of each individual. Behavioural types were predicted by colour traits. In particular, proactive individuals (more aggressive, bolder and quicker to resume behaviour after being startled) were more likely to be dark and, among females, have smaller orange areas. Our results support the hypothesis that coloration in the convict cichlid is related to personality. Thus, coloration could play an important role in mediating social interactions, allowing a quick and reliable assessment of conspecifics' behavioural types. © 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. The ability of individuals to assess the behavioural and physio- logical status of conspecifics is important in mediating social in- teractions and maintaining social cohesion. In many contexts, individuals do not interact randomly; instead, behavioural pheno- type affects the type, number and strength of interactions within populations (Krause, James, & Croft, 2010; Schürch, Rothenberger, & Heg, 2010). Consistent individual behavioural differences over time and across situations are defined as personality. They often correlate with one another, generating behavioural syndromes (Sih, Bell, & Johnson, 2004), and this is likely to have fitness conse- quences (Dall, Houston, & McNamara, 2004; Smith & Blumstein, 2008) because it affects how individuals associate and interact. Pike, Samanta, Lindstr€ om, and Royle (2008) showed that boldness within fish shoals of the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, affected the frequency and distribution of interactions. In networks of bold fish, individuals tend to move randomly within the group, with no preferential interactions. By contrast, in net- works of shy fish, individuals tend to form a small number of social bonds with one or more conspecifics with which they have the most interactions, and there are limited movements within the shoal. Information gathering thus depends on the behavioural types of individuals within a group. Wilson, Krause, Herbert-Read, and Ward (2014) recently demonstrated the influence of behav- ioural type on the mutualistic interactions between the cleaner fish, Labroides dimidiatus, and its client, in that explorative, bolder and more active fish were more likely to cheat and travelled greater distances from their station. Finally, behavioural types are expected to have significant effects on mating decisions in birds and fish, because individuals prefer mates with similar exploratory behav- iours (Schuett, Godin, & Dall, 2011) or they actively avoid aggressive partners (Dzieweczynski, Russell, Forrette, & Mannion, 2014). As- sortative mating for behaviour can also reduce the conflict between partners and lead to better reproductive success (Ariyomo & Watt, * Correspondence: C. Schweitzer, UMR CNRS 6282 Biog eosciences, Equipe Eco- logie Evolutive, Universit e de Bourgogne, 6 bd Gabriel, 21 000 Dijon, France. E-mail address: cecile.schweitzer@u-bourgogne.fr (C. Schweitzer). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Animal Behaviour journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anbehav http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.04.024 0003-3472/© 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Animal Behaviour 105 (2015) 201e209