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Adding short description: "Type of care for offsprings" (Shortdesc helper) |
Teresacurl (talk | contribs) Changing short description from "Type of care for offsprings" to "Animal that cares for its offspring by holding them its mouth" |
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{{Short description|
[[Image:Cyphotilapia frontosa mouthbrooding.jpg|thumb|right|190px|A female ''[[Cyphotilapia frontosa]]'' mouthbrooding [[juvenile fish|fry]] which can be seen looking out from her mouth]]
'''Mouthbrooding''', also known as '''oral incubation''' and '''buccal incubation''', is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a variety of different animals, such as the [[Darwin's frog]], fish are by far the most diverse mouthbrooders. Mouthbrooding has evolved independently in several different families of fish.<ref>Helfman, G., Collette, B, Facey, D.: The Diversity of Fishes, Blackwell Publishing, 1997. {{ISBN|0-86542-256-7}}</ref>
==Mouthbrooding behaviour==
Paternal mouthbrooders are species where the male looks after the eggs. Paternal mouthbrooders include the [[arowana]],
In the case of the maternal mouthbrooders, the female takes the eggs. Maternal mouthbrooders are found among both African and South American cichlids. African examples are the [[haplochromines]], such as the [[mbuna]], ''[[Astatotilapia burtoni]]'', and the dwarf mouthbrooders ''Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor'', and some of the tilapiines, such as ''[[Oreochromis mossambicus]]'' and ''[[Oreochromis niloticus]]''. The South American maternal mouthbrooders are all members of the subfamily [[Geophaginae]] (commonly known as "eartheaters" on account of their substrate-sifting feeding mode) such as ''[[Gymnogeophagus balzanii]]'' and ''[[Geophagus steindachneri]]''.
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