A common form of brood care involves food provisioning. For example, females of lyretail cichlids (Neolamprologus modabu) dig at sandy substrate more to push nutritional detritus and zooplankton into the surrounding water. Adult of N. modabu perform this strategy to collect food for themselves, but dig more when offspring are present, likely to feed their fry. This substrate-disruption strategy is rather common and can also be seen in convict cichlids (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum). Other cichlids have an ectothermal mucus that they grow and feed to their young, while still others chew and distribute caught food to offspring. These strategies, however, are less common in pit-spawning cichlids.
A common form of brood care involves food provisioning. For example, females of lyretail cichlids (Neolamprologus modabu) dig at sandy substrate more to push nutritional detritus and zooplankton into the surrounding water. Adult of N. modabu perform this strategy to collect food for themselves but dig more when offspring are present, likely to feed their fry. This substrate-disruption strategy is rather common and can also be seen in convict cichlids (Cichlasoma nigrofasciatum). Other cichlids have an ectothermal mucus that they grow and feed to their young, while still others chew and distribute caught food to offspring These strategies, however, are less common in pit-spawning cichlids.