Convict cichlids are small, freshwater fish native to Central America.
They have attracted attention from hobbyists and scientists because of the ease with which they can be kept in aquaria and because they exhibit biparental care of their young. As such, convict cichlids provide a useful model for the study of parental care in vertebrates. Unlike birds and mammals, fish generally do not directly provision their young with food after hatching, simplifying the quantification of parental investment. My PhD project was the first detailed documentation of the mating system and seasonal reproductive success of individually marked cichlids in the field. My study was based on four breeding populations of convict cichlids in streams in Costa Rica.