Surfperches Cichlids and Relatives: Labroidei

Some cichlids form pairs in which both parents guard eggs laid on the bottom. Some change sex. Some cichlids are mouth brooders, meaning the eggs and young develop inside the mouth of one or both parents. Many cichlids build huge, cone-shaped sand nests, sometimes in groups as large as fifty thousand stretched over several miles (kilometers) of sand.

Surfperches give birth to live young. Damselfishes, wrasses, parrotfishes, and rock whitings change colors and sexes according to life stage. Damselfishes are territorial of their mating sites and viciously attack intruders. Rock whitings change sex from female to male and live in small groups of one male and several females. Females lay their eggs directly into a plankton mass.