mouthbrooder

1. (zoology) Any animal that cares for its offspring, either eggs or juveniles, by holding them in its mouth for extended periods of time.Examples: "However, [Franz] Steindachner (1875), in describing Arius planiceps, a catfish from Panama, found that at the breeding season the innermost edges of the ventral fins of the female are developed so as to form a kind of pocket. He conjectured that the eggs are extruded into this, fertilized by the male, and then taken into his mouth. He found a similar structure on the female of A. kessleri, the male of which is also a mouth brooder."; "Mozambique mouthbrooders are native to coastal streams of southeast Africa, especially the Zambesi River, Mozambique."; "In almost all mouthbrooders, guarding the young is undertaken by the female (uniparental maternal family) though the male may participate exceptionally, notably in S. mossambicus [...] In S. galilaeus [...] and S. multifasciatus [...] the two sexes form a stable couple and both practice mouthbrooding. This seems, therefore, to be an intermediate stage between the biparental family of substrate-spawners and the uniparental family of mouthbrooders [...]."Synonyms: mouthbreeder