Social Behavior
Mbuna exhibit strong social behavior and establish a clearly visible social hierarchy including well defined and enforced territories. A dominate male will maintain a spherical territory only allowing females to enter this territory for breeding purposes. Over-crowding helps spread out the aggression caused by these territorial conflicts. By over crowding, it is possible to break down these barriers and create an environment where no particular individual gets bullied to death. They are maternal mouthbrooders and breed readily in good conditions. Most species thrive in colonies made up of 1M and 3-5F. This allows the gravid females to hide peacefully until gestation by dispersing the males advances throughout the harem.
Read more about this topic: Mbuna
Famous quotes related to social behavior:
“If twins are believed to be less intelligent as a class than single-born children, it is not surprising that many times they are also seen as ripe for social and academic problems in school. No one knows the extent to which these kind of attitudes affect the behavior of multiples in school, and virtually nothing is known from a research point of view about social behavior of twins over the age of six or seven, because this hasn’t been studied either.”
—Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)