Spawning Coordination of Mates in a Shell Brooding Cichlid

Table 1

Spawning behaviours and locations of males and females. (f): Behaviours of which frequencies were recorded, for all other behaviours frequency and duration were recorded.

	Behaviour/location	Description
Male behaviour	Mouthing	The male puts his head into the shell entrance and opens and closes his mouth repeatedly
	Head shake (f)	The male shakes his head quickly side wards in front of the shell entrance
	Head-in (f)	The male puts his head a few mm into the shell entrance but without actively opening and closing the mouth
	Sperm release (i.e. ejaculation)	The male puts his genital papilla over the shell entrance and stays motionless in this position for up to 4 seconds
Female behaviour	Shifting	The female partly moves out of the shell, flickers with the caudal fin and immediately moves back again to her original position. At all times, her tail remains visible and her head remains inside the shell, so no direct visual contact with the male or our fingers appears possible.
	Egg laying (f)	The females deposits an egg at the inner surface of her snail shell
	Moving out of shell	The female comes partly out of the shell
Male location	At the shell	The male is close to the shell (<4 cm)
	Away	The male is >4 cm away from the shell and cannot communicate with the female inside the shell
Female location	In the shell	The female is completely or partly inside the shell^*
	Out of the shell	The female is completely out of the shell

^∗Data analyses were conducted starting when the female was inside the shell.