During the early stage of biological invasions, interactions occur between native and non-native species that do not share an evolutionary history. This can result in ecological naïveté, causing native species to exhibit maladaptive behavioural responses to novel enemies, leading to negative consequences for individual fitness and ecosystem function. The behavioural response of native to non-native species during novel encount...

The accuracy and reliability of DNA metabarcoding analyses depend on the breadth and quality of the reference libraries that underpin them. However, there are limited options available to obtain and curate the huge volumes of sequence data that are available on public repositories such as NCBI and BOLD. Here, we provide a pipeline to download, clean and annotate mitochondrial DNA sequence data for a given list of fish species....

Invasive species are one of the greatest threats to freshwater ecosystems globally. However, the causal mechanisms that drive negative impacts of many invasive species are poorly understood. In Tanzania, non-native Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ) exists in sympatry with a diverse range of native species, many of which are congenerics with strong niche overlap. It has been suggested that O. niloticus can displace native...

Invasive freshwater fishes are known to readily hybridize with indigenous congeneric species, driving loss of unique and irreplaceable genetic resources. Here we reveal that newly discovered (2013–2016) evolutionarily significant populations of Korogwe tilapia ( Oreochromis korogwe ) from southern Tanzania are threatened by hybridization with the larger invasive Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ). We use a combination of m...

Skates and rays constitute the most speciose group of chondrichthyan fishes, yet are characterised by remarkable levels of morphological and ecological conservatism. They can be challenging to identify, which makes monitoring species compositions for fisheries management purposes problematic. Owing to their slow growth and low fecundity, skates are vulnerable to exploitation and species exhibiting endemism or limited ranges ar...

The evolutionary origin of the only north‐west Saharan haplochromine cichlid, Astatotilapia desfontainii , was explored using mitochondrial DNA sequences. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that this species belonged to the main East African–Nilotic haplochromine clade, but was a distinct lineage that diverged from modern haplochromines in the Pliocene. The results suggest that A. desfontainii is a relict haplochromine lineage tha...

Over the last 10 years, 12 rocky habitat ‘mbuna’ taxa have been translocated to Nkhata Bay on the north‐western shores of Lake Malawi from other regions of the lake. Given potential for competition and hybridization with indigenous taxa, further translocations should be avoided.

Clear changes in body size‐isotope (carbon and nitrogen) trajectories of Pseudotropheus callainos , a cichlid belonging to the endemic haplochromine species radiation in Lake Malawi, were found that corresponded with an ontogenetic dietary shift from predominantly planktonic to benthic food sources. The results indicated that dietary switching was a proximate cause of isotopic change over the life history of this species and c...

It has been estimated that Lake Malawi, Africa, contains 500–650 endemic species of cichlid fishes, the largest number of vertebrate species endemic to any comparable sized area on the planet. As many of these putative species cannot be distinguished anatomically, these estimates of species richness depend to a great extent on the assumption that sympatrically occurring male colour morphs represent biological species. We have...