Female breeding experience affects parental care strategies of both parents in a monogamous cichlid fish

• I examined the effects of female experience on breeding behaviour in convict cichlid pairs.
• Inexperienced females were less likely to form pairs and took longer to spawn.
• When their mates were present, experienced and inexperienced females behaved similarly.
• When their mates were absent, experienced females showed more defence behaviour.
• More intrapair conflict existed in pairs containing experienced females.

Previous breeding experience affects parental care, yet in biparental species it is unclear how the inexperience of only one parent influences parental dynamics and division of labour. Using the biparental convict cichlid, Amatitlania siquia, I assessed how female breeding experience affects male and female parental behaviour. Females that either had bred (experienced) or were virgins (inexperienced) were paired with experienced males. Inexperienced females were less likely to form pairs and took longer to spawn. Female experience also affected parental division of labour between direct offspring care and territory defence. Female behaviour was compared in the presence and absence of their male partners. When males were present, all females divided their time similarly: more time was spent in direct care. When male mates were removed, experienced females divided their time equally between territory defence and direct care, while inexperienced females continued to spend more time in direct care. Males paired to inexperienced females divided their time equally between territory defence and direct care, while males paired to experienced females spent more time in defence. Males were also more aggressive towards experienced females. Overall, experienced females tended to adopt the male-typical role of defence, which probably caused the increased intrapair conflict in these pairs. This aggression helps explain why both experienced and inexperienced females showed similar role choices in the presence of their male partner and supports previous claims that male aggression helps maintain the division of labour in this species. Female inexperience potentially presents a trade-off for males: males paired to inexperienced females engaged in less intrapair conflict, but showed less division of labour between parental roles than is typical and were less likely to pair and spawn. The effect of female experience on division of labour, parental dynamics and pair bonding success probably influences other factors such as mate choice, effectiveness of parental care and overall fitness.