Males of many species display conspicuous colors to attract mates and deter rivals, although this benefit can incur an increased predation risk. In the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, males can change both their social status (dominant, DOM, or subordinate, SUB) and primary body color (yellow or blue). We hypothesized that these phenotypes vary in conspicuousness to predators and conspecifics, thus establishing a trade-off between intraspecific signaling and predation. We quantified the spectral reflectance of yellow and blue DOM and SUB males. We then constructed avian and conspecific visual receiver models to determine the relative conspicuousness of each phenotype. We show that there are significant differences in conspicuousness to predators and conspecifics, with the flanks of the yellow DOM males exhibiting more spectral contrast to both avian predators and conspecifics than the flanks of blue DOM males. Our measurements of escape behavior revealed that each morph exhibits distinct anti-predatory responses, with SUB males shoaling for protection, and the more conspicuous yellow DOM males executing more escape responses, potentially compensating for their increased conspicuousness. Our results suggest a novel mechanism for the maintenance of alternative male phenotypes in this species, where dynamically enhanced conspicuousness is offset by plastic changes in behavior.

许多物种的雄性表现出明显的颜色，以吸引配偶并威慑对手，尽管这种好处会招致更大的捕食风险。在非洲丽鱼科鱼Astatotilapia burtoni中，男性可以改变其社会地位（主要是DOM或从属SUB）和主要肤色（黄色或蓝色）。我们假设这些表型对捕食者和特定物种的显着性有所不同，因此在种内信号传导和捕食之间建立了一个折衷方案。我们量化了黄色和蓝色DOM和SUB雄性的光谱反射率。然后，我们构建了鸟类和特定的视觉接收器模型，以确定每种表型的相对显着性。我们表明，对捕食者和种属的显着性存在显着差异，与蓝色DOM雄性的侧翼相比，黄色DOM雄性的侧翼与禽类掠食性和种质均表现出更多的光谱对比。我们对逃逸行为的测量表明，每个变体都表现出独特的反掠夺性反应，SUB雄性会进行保护，而更显眼的黄色DOM雄性会执行更多的逃避响应，从而可能弥补其显眼性的增加。我们的结果提出了一种维持该物种替代雄性表型的新机制，其中动态增强的显眼性被行为的塑性变化所抵消。