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Hi, my name is Carol and I am the education team leader at the National Aquarium of New
Zealand. Look at these fish with all these strikingly
beautiful and bright colours. This is the Malawi Cichlid.
Like many females around the world, these cichlids are very similar in that they are
attracted to gold and property. The male cichlid has egg-spots located on his *** fin, which
is just before and below the tale of the fish. The male then proceeds to build a nest by
removing stones and sand from the bottom of the lakebed, and the female comes down to
investigate -- being the property-lover that she is!
This is where it gets really interesting. The male, to attract the female to his nest,
begins a courtship dance -- kind of like a fast salsa, blending into a slow tango. When
they finish the dance, the female begins to lay her eggs in the bottom of the nest. The
female lays between five and 20 eggs in the bottom of the nest, and the male hovers beside.
The female picks up the eggs from the nest, putting them in her mouth. She looks over
at the male, and sees those gold spots. Being very attracted to gold, she tries to pick
them off his *** fin. This induces the male to release his *** and fertilises the eggs
in her mouth. Like in Lake Malawi, space is at a premium
in this tank at the Aquarium. The cichlids are constantly squabbling over prime property,
especially the females. Where these waters overlap, there is cross-breeding,
and that's where we get the many colour variations between the different species of cichlid.