THE INDUCTION OF BROODING BEHAVIOR IN THE JEWEL FISH1

Abstract

Many cichlid fishes, including the Jewel Fish, Hemichromis bimaculatus, brood their eggs and young. The eggs are guarded and fanned; the young are protected against the approach of other fish. For several days after hatching, the young which stray from the school are seized by either parent and spit out among the remainder of the school. Both parents ‘call’ their young by abrupt fin movements which are made at no other time (1). Unlike rats and mice (2), the Jewel Fish, which has raised one brood, readily distinguishes between its own young and those of other species, for it will collect and guard its own young but devour foreign species introduced at the same time (1). Prolactin has been claimed to induce the brooding behavior of fowl (3) and maternal behavior in rats (4). The results obtained with the latter are by no means clear cut, and Leblond (2) has shown in mice that the “retrieving, licking and cuddling of the young, which may be considered the main features of maternal behavior, may be initiated and maintained without hormonal intermediaries.” In the fowl, Ceni (5) found that an extract of several glands (chiefly thyroid and suprarenal would induce broodiness, but that blinding or even alcoholic poisoning would have the same effect.

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