Nonguarding species Guarders Bearers Open substrate spawners Substrate

Nonguarding species Guarders Bearers Open substrate spawners Substrate choosers External bearers Brood hiders Nest spawners Internal bearers

§ Parental care means Parents' care for their children § Parental care is surprisingly common, widespread, and diverse in fishes § Although most species scatter or abandon eggs upon or after fertilization, approximately 90 of the c. 460 families of bony fishes include species that engage in some form of defense or manipulation of eggs and young § Parental care is more necessary for demersal or adhesive eggs that are likely to be found by predators searching along the bottom or among plants or other structure. Hence it is not surprising that few if any species with pelagic, floating eggs provide care for them.

§ construction and maintenance of a nest; burying eggs once deposited in the nest; chasing § § § § potential egg and fry predators from the nest; fanning or splashing eggs or young with the mouth, fins, or body to provide oxygen and to flush away sediments and metabolic wastes; removal of dead or diseased eggs; cleaning eggs by taking them into the mouth and then returning them to the nest; carrying eggs or young in the mouth or gill chambers, in a ventral brood pouch, or externally on the head, back, or belly; coiling around the egg mass to prevent desiccation; retrieving eggs or young that wander from the nest or aggregation; accompanying foraging young and providing refuge or defense when predators approach; secreting specialized mucus that inhibits pathogen growth or that free swimming young eat; and provisioning young or aiding them in the capture of food. ……

§ Placental connections, common in Chondrichthyes, occur in only one osteichthyan family, the Mexican goodeids, although transfer of nutrients directly from mother to developing young has been demonstrated in poeciliid livebearers and sebastine scorpaenids, and its analog is thought to occur in pregnant male seahorses and pipefishes. a special type of parental care shown by many Chondrichthyes but occurs in only 14 families of bony fishes. § Well-developed embryos in the ovary of a Mexican goodeid, the Butterfly Splitfin, Ameca splendens; 13 embryos are visible. § Fingerlike extensions projecting forward from the ovary are trophotaenia, which are epithelial structures that grow from the embryos’ anal regions and serve to take up nutrients provided by the mother.

§ in many seahorses and pipefishes, females lay their eggs at the entry to brood pouches on the male’s belly, a structure that varies in complexity within the family. § The pregnant male fertilizes the eggs and retains and protects the eggs and young inside the pouch, helping them osmoregulate and providing them with oxygen and perhaps nutrition until they reach a relatively advanced stage of development § “Birth” involves contractions and contortions by the male that expel the young from the pouch.

§ Happened in Copella, Lebiasinidae § The male and female line up under a leaf and leap together as much as 10 cm into the air, turning upside down and adhering to the leaf’s underside momentarily. § In this manner, a dozen or so fertilized eggs are stuck repeatedly to the leaf. § Over the next 2– 3 days, the male moistens the egg mass by splashing it at 1 min intervals with fl ips of his tail, correcting for refraction at the water’s surface. Newly hatched young fall into the water. One of the most unusual parental patterns, which deposits eggs out of water.

§ Preventing desiccation of eggs exposed to air also explains unusual parental care in intertidal species. § Several small, elongate intertidal fishes coil their bodies around the egg mass as the tide goes out, thus trapping a small pool of water in which the eggs sit. Other fishes that spawn in the intertidal, such as temperate wrasses and sculpins, cover the eggs with algae, thus controlling desiccation during low tides § Rockhopper Blennies, Andamia tetradactyla, spawn in supralittoral nests in crevices that are above the high water mark for about 12 h daily, the male remaining with the eggs throughout the day. Depositing eggs above the intertidal – covered with algae, deposited among rocks, or buried in sand – has many surprising advantages, once desiccation is prevented. § Higher incubation temperatures, higher oxygen concentrations, and reduced predation are among the considered benefits

§ epidermal secretions has been observed in bagrid catfishes and in several cichlids, including discus, Midas Cichlid, as well as members of the genera Aequidens, Etroplus, and Oreochromis. This form of parental care is suspected in numerous other cichlids, and in a bonytongue and a damselfish. § Thickened scales and increased mucus production have been identified in the adults of provisioning species. A few fishes provide food for their young via epidermal secretions and trophic eggs

§ Epidermal secretions serve additional, care-giving functions. § Recent studies have shown that guarding males have specialized regions of their bodies that produce mucus with antimicrobial functions that directly benefit developing young. § Nest-guarding male Fringed Darters(Etheostoma crossopterum), have a mucus cell- rich region on the top of their heads; Male Redlip Blennies(Ophioblennius atlanticus), and Peacock Blennies(Salaria pavo), produce a mucus enriched with antimicrobial substances from their specialized, sexually dimorphic, anal glands. § Antimicrobial activity is turning up increasingly as different taxa are explored, and a new class of antibiotic peptides called piscidins has been isolated in fish mucus.

§ Many sharks, and perhaps the living coelacanths, produce trophic eggs that are eaten by developing embryos prior to hatching § One bagrid catfish in Lake Malawi, Africa, feeds trophic eggs to free-living juveniles. § Bagrus meridionalis young position themselves under the vent of the guarding female and apparently ingest eggs as they are extruded by the mother; 40% of the young in a nest may have such eggs in their stomachs. A few fishes provide food for their young via epidermal secretions and trophic eggs

§ Mouth or oral brooding is the most common form of egg- carrying, having been documented in at least six families (sea catfishes, lumpfishes, cardinalfishes, cichlids, jawfishes, gouramis) § Eggs are picked up, usually by the male, shortly after fertilization. § In the case of some cichlids, eggs are fertilized in the female’s mouth, where they are retained The bottom of the ocean, lake, or a stream is a relatively hazardous environment for defenseless eggs, and many species carry the eggs rather than leave them deposited on the substrate.

§ In cichlids, oral brooding extends well beyond hatching. Free-swimming young forage as part of a shoal near the female. When predators approach, the female signals the young by backing slowly with the head down. The young swim towards her head and she sucks them into her mouth § Some predatory cichlids will ram the head region of females that are carrying young, forcing them to spit a few out, which are then engulfed by the predator. The bottom of the ocean, lake, or a stream is a relatively hazardous environment for defenseless eggs, and many species carry the eggs rather than leave them deposited on the substrate.

§ gill chamber brooding : North American blind cavefishes § attachment of eggs to the male’s lower lip : suckermouth armored catfishes § attachment of eggs to the head : nurseryfishes § attachment of eggs to the belly of either parent : bagrid and banjo catfishes § In the kurtoid nurseryfishes, an advanced perciform suborder of the southwestern Pacific, males develop a unique, downward-bent, hook on their foreheads to which the eggs are attached and carried until hatching.