SOCIAL AND REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIORS | Parental Care in Fishes

Acts of parental care in fishes range from hiding/guarding eggs to carrying offspring around to providing offspring with nutrition. Parental care improves survival and development of young but at a potential cost to parental fitness. In fish, care may be provided by the female alone, the male alone, or both parents, with care by the male alone most common. Fish have been used for decades to test our understanding of the origins of parental care and to unravel the factors influencing how much care to provide. In contrast, little is known about the physiological proximate mechanisms that underlie parental care.