To protect their young, mouth-brooding cichlids display some of the most entertaining and fascinating behavior of the freshwater fishes. These specialized freshwater fish are endemic to the various great lakes of Africa such as Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria.

Depending on the species, there are two routes a mouth-brooding cichlid can take to mouth-brood their fry. First, some cichlids are larvophilic. With larvophilic cichlids, the female lays her eggs on substrate, and the mouth brooding does not begin until after the eggs hatch.

The second method of mouth brooding in cichlid species is the ovophilic breeders. Once the female lays her eggs, she immediately takes them into her mouth until they hatch. In some species of mouth-brooding 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 into her mouth thereby fertilizing her eggs.

The fry of mouth-brooding cichlids are fascinating to watch as they swim in tight ball-like schools and attempt to swim into their mother’s mouth all at once. Just like children of our species there are one or two fry that take longer to respond to direction.

YouTube video showing a mouth-brooding Benitochromis Nigrodorsalis:

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