Breeding aquarium fish can be one of the pinnacles of aquarium success but several groups of fish including jawfish and cardinalfish make it much easier due to one quirk of their parental care, mouthbrooding. Any one who’s kept african cichlids knows that you don’t have to do much to end up with baby fish darting about the rocks and aquascape.
我们心爱的Banggai Cardinal鱼是一个冠军，呼吸脑护理的程度差异很大，旨在保护他们的年轻人在嘴里，直到完全形成的微型鱼可以释放到世界上。呼吸脑可能非常有效地保护年轻的鱼，但对于实践的物种来说，这也是非常昂贵的，因为负责的父母必须饿死，而他们的颊腔则充满了下一代。
We’ve often wondered how in the world the mouthbrooding behavior evolved in so many species of fish, resisting the instinct to eat tasty morsels that are already in their mouths while they are hungry. Naturally, species of fish with larger mouths were already predisposed to being able to care for their young in this fish, and the jawfish are naturally inclined to manipulating stones and rubble with their largejaws, hence their name.
While most species of fish are broadcast or substrate spawners, the evolution of mouthbrooding coincides where predation of the young is high, especially where fish abundance and diversity is very high such as in coral reefs or the analogous rift lakes of east Africa. If you have one or several rugrats of your own consider yourself lucky that you don’t have to keep a few dozen in your mouth and starving while you do it because the jawfish and cardinalfish certainly go the extra mile when it comes to caring for their young.
