Fishionary | A blog about fish words!

Strategies—Fish Mating

Posted by admin on February 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

FISH MATING STRATEGIES

In honor of Valentines Day, please enjoy the first series of post for this blog post on fish mating strategies! Check back weekly for new additions to the “Fish-ionary.”

Promiscuous: A mating system where both sexes have multiple partners during the breeding system. In fishes, this is the most common mating system. Breeders make little or no mate choice and spawn with multiple partners, either sequentially or at the same time….read more.
Polygamous: A mating system in which an individual of one sex has multiple partners during the breeding system but individuals of the opposite sex have only one partner…. read more.
Polygyny: A polygamous mating system where a male has multiple female partners during the breeding season. This is the more common form of polygamy….read more.
Polyandry: A polygamous mating system where a female has multiple male partners during the breeding season….read more.
Monogamy: A mating system where partners live and exclusively mate with only each other….read more.

Polygyny

Posted by admin on February 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

Polygyny is a polygamous mating system where a male has multiple female partners during the breeding season. This is the more common form of polygamy.
Polygynous males, like slimy sculpins (Cottus cognatus), setup territories and are visited by multiple females. Other polygynous males, like some African cichlids (such as Mchenga eucinostomus), form leks, where they congregate and perform breeding displays to attract female passers-by. And still other polygynous males, like wrasses (Labridae), form harems where a large male protects a number of females with which he, alone, can mate. See polygamous;
polyandry.

Bluehead Wrasse form polygynous
harems

Monogamy

Posted by admin on February 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

Monogamy is a mating system where partners live and exclusively mate with only each other. These pair bonds can be transitory, just for a single breeding season, extend for several years or even a lifetime. Fish that form strong pair bonds include: American freshwater catfish, some cichlids, and many butterflyfish. The Four-Eyed Butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) is one such fish that mates for life – very rare in the fish world.

Four-eye butterfly fish mate for
life