There are fish that do mate for life, and tend to keep monogamous "relationships", if you will.
For example: I had two pairs of breeding severum in my aquariums at home. They are gorgeous fish, with a lot of personality and spunk. Being cichlids, they go through a protracted process of mate selection and courtship. Males will carve out a territory and harass nearby fish. They'll change colors before your eyes and extend all their fins to put on a show for the female cichlid they're interested in. I'll take a picture the next time my male severum goes into breeding mode. Each severum female eventually picked it's mate and both groups went about the usual "dancing", "shaking", and lip-locking before laying eggs. One of the females in the group died. The male she bonded with never bred again, even upon introduction of a new female. The other breeding pair will NOT breed with any other severum. I've tried seperating the female and placing her in a different tank with a different male, and had NO results. She actually harassed him so bad I had to move him out. Severums, and many other cichlids form pair-bonds which last for life. It's a VERY cool thing to behold. Who'da thunk that these little fish, with their tiny brains, had such a complex (and dedicated) method of procreation? -V -----Original Message----- From: Nick McClure [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 1:24 PM To: CF-Community Subject: RE: Super Duper Controversial post....heheh <snip> True, but from what I was taught in biology class, there were very few species that mated for life, especially if given the choice. Humans, and many other animals, are capable of making a choice. Most animals seem to operate on instinct. They get aroused they fix it. Humans seem to take longer and the process has some requirements, one requirement with most humans is consent, which is not necessarily required in the animal kingdom. The males fight for the right to mate, things like that. <snip stuff that the Big Brother mail filter might whack me for...> But that was just what I was taught in school. Was this wrong? ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
