PARENTAL FIN DIGGING BY CICHLASOMA-OCTOFASCIATUM (TELEOSTEI, CICHLIDAE) AND THE EFFECT OF PARENTS SATIATION STATE ON BROOD PROVISIONING

Although parental care in fishes does not usually include provisioning offspring after hatching, various types of brood provisioning have be en documented for some bony fishes, and in particular, for cichlids. F or example, fin digging occurs among biparental substrate brooding cic hlids of the 'genus' Cichlasoma sensu late. Parental fin digging by Ci chlasoma octofasciatum was investigated under laboratory conditions. F in digging was performed significantly more often by females than by m ales. For both sexes, the frequency of fin digging increased significa ntly with brood age, especially from ages 3 to 10 d of fry: this was m ore pronounced in females. The parents' own current satiation state du ring performance of fin digging influenced the fin digging frequency: for both sexes it was higher in hungry than in satiated parents.