African cichlids are some of the worlds most amazing fish. One of the great abilities of these amazing fish is their parenting extremes.With fish, parents try many different ways to assure the survival of offspring, and many of the African cichlids of Africa's great rift lakes (Lake Malawi, lake Tanganyika and lake Victoria) have found a creative way to raise offspring by mouth brooding! Female African cichlids lay eggs, then scoop them into their mouth, then allows the male to fertilize the eggs in their mouth, and then raise the fry until they are old enough to fend for themselves!This mouth brooding behavior was mastered by the Africans cichlids, and now us fish keeps are able to witness it in our home aquariums! When a female is mouth brooding, we generally say that she is holding......lets see some of my holding females!
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| Holding Hongi cichlid, notice the extended mouth where fry (babies) grow! |
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| Holding Red Zebra |
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| A holding female will go almost a month without eating! |
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| Holding Yellow lab |
