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In the cooperatively breeding cichlid\n                    <jats:italic>Neolamprologus pulcher<\/jats:italic>\n                    reproductive division of labour exists, where a dominant breeding pair reproduces while subordinates help in rearing the offspring and perform various tasks to gain acceptance within the group. Larger helpers engage in territory maintenance and predator defence while smaller helpers focus on egg care and deterrence of egg predators. Here we investigated task specialisation, division of labour and the dynamics of coordination of tasks in\n                    <jats:italic>N. pulcher<\/jats:italic>\n                    groups of natural size and composition. In lab experiments, we assessed whether helpers consistently specialized in sand removal from territories or in egg predator defence when both tasks were presented simultaneously. Different size classes performed both tasks, task performance was not repeatable, and there was no clear division of labour. Dominant females did most work, with the helpers often remaining idle. Lag sequence analysis revealed that individuals were significantly more likely to take up a task if it had just been performed by another individual, rather than dividing labour between individuals - a phenomenon we term \u201ctask contagion\u201d. This suggests that individuals respond to immediate group needs, offering new insights into how cooperative breeders can adapt to changing task demands by flexible behaviour and potentially enhance group efficiency.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s00265-026-03723-7","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]],"date-time":"2026-04-09T05:48:33Z","timestamp":1775713713000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Flexibility in task performance and division of labour in a cooperatively breeding cichlid"],"prefix":"10.1007","volume":"80","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7200-1366","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"A.","family":"Ramesh","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1690-8155","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"B.","family":"Taborsky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"3723_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1232","DOI":"10.1126\/science.abq5158","volume":"379","author":"I Akinrinade","year":"2023","unstructured":"Akinrinade I, Kareklas K, Teles et al (2023) Evolutionarily conserved role of oxytocin in social fear contagion in zebrafish. 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The captive holding of the fish was carried out under licence no. BE 4\/22 and experiments were conducted under licence no. BE 34\/22 of the Veterinary Office of the Canton of Bern. In addition, we followed the guidelines provided by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour for the use of animals in behavioural research (ASAB Ethical Committee & ABS Animal Care Committee\n                      \n                      ). All fish were monitored daily during feeding by noting normal feeding behaviour, posture, morphology and behaviour. Evicted fish, recognised by limited movement and increased aggression by conspecifics were identified during daily monitoring and immediately isolated. All fish were retained in our permanent breeding stock after the end of the study.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Declarations"}}],"article-number":"49"}}