Are all mouth-breeders pair forming ?

[anewbie]

As far as I can tell my a. sp ipiranga have formed strong pairs in that the male will not entertain other females. Is this a known behavior of all mouth brooders, of just ipiranga or my imagination.

Obviously i can't know if the pair forming behavior is temporary though i do know that the male long before they bred chased away the other females. (long as in 4+ months).

bad picture of female with brood (this is the first breeding and she has 15 to 20 frys which seem to grow faster than most frys).

 

[Mike Wise]

They don't really form 'bonded' pairs. Instead they form 'breeding' pairs, where a pair will join for breeding. If successful they may continue being a breeding pair unless one or both find more suitable mates in the future. This is true at least for barlowi-complex species. I'm not sure if it is true for species in the D10-group.