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How do cichlids, sticklebacks, and gouramis make nests for their eggs?
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Diodon hystrix is a species of porcupine fish. These fishes are short and broad-bodied, with large eyes and spines covering their skin. Like puffer fishes, they inflate their bodies when threatened.
Cichlids, sticklebacks, and gouramis exhibit distinct and specialized nest-building behaviors to protect their eggs:
- Cichlids: Many species prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand or gravel bottom of their environment. Some cichlids also practice oral incubation, where one or both parents carry the eggs in their mouths for protection.12
- Sticklebacks: The male builds a nest using plant materials that are glued together with threadlike, mucous secretions produced by his kidneys. Once the nest is constructed, he coaxes a female to lay her eggs inside, after which he guards and aerates the eggs by fanning them with his fins.31
- Gouramis: As members of the labyrinth fishes, these fish typically build bubble nests. The male creates the nest by taking air into his mouth, coating it with a mucous secretion, and blowing the bubbles to the water's surface to form a cluster. After the eggs are laid, the male often collects them and places them into the bubble nest for protection.21