The Cichlid Fishes by George Barlow, Perseus, $28, ISBN 0738203769
Homosexuality, polygyny, sex-changing, babysitting and mass orgies among
fish? Surely not? Prepare to be amazed. George Barlow’s The Cichlid
Fishes reveals fish behaviour that you may have overlooked.
He describes, for example, how a tiny male Neolamprologus
callipterus kidnaps a female from a neighbouring colony by stealing the
shell in which she lives. But then, because he is after the shell and not her,
he drives her out of her home. She is doomed to certain death on the barren
sandy bottom of Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa.
The strength…
