Some cichlid fish mothers snack on their own offspring to ensure their own survival. New research suggests that the mothers can boost their chemical defences by using antioxidants found in their own ...

Mouthbrooding fish under stress may sometimes resort to cannibalism and eat their young. Scientists' discovery of the behavior was "a complete accident." When you purchase through links on our site, ...

While many creatures lay eggs or give birth to live young in familiar ways, some have developed unique methods to protect their offspring. One such strategy is mouthbrooding, where parents carry and ...

A study of Australian fish that care for offspring through mouthbrooding shows that things underwater are not always as monogamous as they seem. By Elizabeth Preston Lurking among the underwater ...

Mouthbrooding cichlids, which hold their eggs and fry in their buccal cavity, are an interesting group in which behavior and development time have been poorly studied. Life history traits and ...

There are concerned, overprotective parents, and then there are cichlid fish. After a male cichlid fertilizes the female’s eggs, she holds her entire brood of embryos inside her mouth for two weeks ...

Raising babies can be exhausting—so much so that some mouthbrooding mothers snack on their young, according to a new study. A central African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni—commonly called Burton ...

Aequidens paraguayensis from South America is a biparental larvophilic mouthbrooder. Adhesive eggs are laid on a substrate and fanned until hatching (substratebrooding). The hatching larvae are taken ...

In an extreme feat of parenting, some female cichlid fish carry their eggs and babies in their mouths for about two weeks. In this way, the young fish and fish-to-be are protected from predators in ...

Jake Sawecki, a former biology graduate student, has published his research on filial cannibalism in cichlid fish. The research, published in Biology Letters, was completed during his time in the ...

When animals practice monogamy, we can generally tell right away. After all, couples like to hang out together, whether they’re humans or squirrels or hawks. But one fish keeps its monogamy so ...