Cichlid spawning structures – bowers or nests? |
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Authors: | Denis Tweddle David H Eccles Clifford B Frith Geoffrey Fryer Peter BN Jackson Digby SC Lewis Rosemary H Lowe-McConnell |
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Institution: | (1) J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology, Private Bag 1015, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa;(2) 53 Cressy Road, North Ryde, NSW, 2113, Australia;(3) P.O. Box 581, Malanda, North Queensland, 4885, Australia;(4) ‘Threeaways’, Sulgrave, Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK;(5) ‘Streatwick’, Streat, Nr Hassocks, Sussex, BN6 8RT, UK;(6) Elleray Cottage, Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 1AW, UK |
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Abstract: | Males of mouthbrooding cichlids build sand-castle or sand-scrape structures. These are used as display sites to attract females,
eggs are laid and inseminated there and then taken away by the female for brooding elsewhere. It has been suggested that the
structure be called a bower because it has the same role as the bowerbird's bower. Thew word bower is restricted in ornithological
literature to complex structures which reminded Gould (1840) of garden bowers. Simpler display sites of other bowerbirds and
other bird families are called courts. Bowerbirds use separate nests for egg-laying, cichlids do not. Other birds, e.g. many
weavers, use nests for display purposes. The cichlid structure is the same as nests used by other non mouthbrooding fishes,
but mouthbrooding has freed females from the need to stay in the nest. It is unacceptable to use the word bower for the cichlid
structure because it is not a bower as defined in ornithological literature, and it is used for egg laying as well as display.
Weaver birds use nests for display in a similar way to cichlids, thus the word nest should be retained for the cichlid sand
structure.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date. |
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Keywords: | sand-castle African mouth-brooding lek bowerbirds display court egg-laying |
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