Cichlids, Anemonefish And Damselfish

This group gathers Fish subcategory members belonging to two related percomorph families united here by a shared reputation for complex, highly observable social and reproductive behavior. The cichlid family Cichlidae, overwhelmingly freshwater and famous for the rapid, explosive diversification of hundreds of endemic species in Africa's Great Lakes, contributes species such as the tilapias, farmed worldwide as a food fish, and popular aquarium fish including the oscar, the firemouth cichlid, the freshwater angelfish and the convict cichlid, most cichlids showing elaborate parental care, in several species brooding their own eggs and young inside the mouth. The damselfish family Pomacentridae contributes the anemonefish, or clownfish, whose immunity to the sting of the sea anemones they live among, in exchange for cleaning and defending their host, is one of the best-known examples of mutualism in the marine world.