Finny fathers
In the world of fish, it is often the father that does most of the
baby-sitting.
A father smallmouth black bass starts to take care of his babies even
before they’re hatched. He makes a wide, saucer-shaped hole in the sand.
The mother bass lays her eggs in the hole. The eggs are sticky. They
stick to the sand and do not float away.
After the mother lays the eggs, the father pushes her away. He wants to
guard the eggs all by himself. He swims back and forth over the nest. He
fans the eggs
When the eggs hatch, baby sea horses shoot out of their father’s
pouch.
Sea horse
A father sea horse keeps the mother’s eggs in a pouch on his stomach.
Stickleback
This fish is guarding eggs in a nest.
with his tail. This keeps the water around the eggs fresh and helps them
hatch.
When the babies hatch they cannot swim well at first. The father watches
over them. He fights anything that comes near. When the babies can swim,
the father swims with them and guards them while they find food.
Many other father fish make nests and guard their babies as a father
smallmouth black bass does. But a father sea catfish protects his babies
in a different way. He keeps the eggs in his mouth until they hatch.
When they hatch, he holds the babies in his mouth until they’re big
enough to take care of themselves. Then he spits them out into the water
and away they swim.
