CICHLID SPAWNING STRUCTURES - BOWERS OR NESTS

Males of mouthbrooding cichlids build sand-castle or sand-scrape struc tures. These are used as display sites to attract females, eggs are la id and inseminated there and then taken away by the female for broodin g elsewhere. It has been suggested that the structure be called a bowe r because it has the same role as the bowerbird's bower. Thew word bow er is restricted in ornithological literature to complex structures wh ich reminded Gould (1840) of garden bowers. Simpler display sites of o ther 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 mouthbr ooding has freed females from the need to stay in the nest. It is unac ceptable to use the word bower for the cichlid structure because it is not a bower as defined in ornithological literature, and it is used f or 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.