In order to protect their young, mouth-brooding cichlids display some of the most entertaining and fascinating behavior of the freshwater fishes. These little fish are endemic to the great lakes of Africa (i.e., Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria).

Depending on the species, there are two methods that a mouth-brooding cichlid can utilize in order to mouth-brood their fry. First, some cichlids are larvophilic. With larvophilic cichlids, the female lays her eggs onto some type of substrate, and the mouth brooding doesn’t begin until after the eggs hatch.

The other group of mouth-brooding cichlids are called ovophilic. Once the female lays her eggs, she immediately takes them into her mouth where she keeps them until they hatch. In some species of ovophilic cichlids, the male uses egg spots or egg dummies on his anal fin, which the female confuses for eggs. When the female attempts to take the egg dummies into her mouth, the male ejaculates in an attempt to fertilize the eggs that she is carrying in her mouth.

The fry of mouth-brooding cichlids are fascinating to watch as they swim in tight ball-like schools and rush into their mother’s mouth all at once.

Video: A mouth-brooding Benitochromis Nigrodorsalis:

Video: How to strip fry from a mouth-brooding cichlid (if you’re an aquarists):