Parental Behavior in Fish

Abstract

Fish are the most diverse group of vertebrates, and exhibit a wide variety of parental care behaviors, ranging from nesting and mouthbrooding to internal gestation and male pregnancy. Fish differ from most other groups of vertebrates in that males are often the primary caregiver, a factor which has made this group particularly important in studies of the ecology and evolution of parental care. Comparative phylogenetic work suggests that male parental care has evolved repeatedly in bony fishes, a process facilitated by the opportunity for external fertilization, territoriality, and paired spawning behavior. Despite the exceptional frequency of male parental care in bony fishes, experimental research has identified a variety of social, neural and physiological cues that are common to vertebrates involved in offspring care.