how do fish make love or breed?

Answer 1

It depends on the type of fish... Most fish are egg-layers. Some are livebearers.

Livebearers Have sex like humans & spit out live babies after a month or so of pregnancy. Guppies & mollies fit this bill.

Egg layers come in many varieties....

Mouthbrooders will carry fertilized eggs in their mouth until they hatch & they'll let them out of their mouths when they find a safe area filled with food. They just use their mouths as a place to protect the fertilized eggs.

Pit Spanwers dig a hole in the ground like a cave. They will clean the pit with their mouths for a few days and then the female will lay eggs in the pit, about 50 at a time & then the male will go in & fertilize the eggs. They can lay hundreds of eggs in a session. The eggs will stay in the pit for a month, hatch & then the parents will defend the young.

Some fish lay eggs on a rock & do pretty much the same thing as pit spawners with a digging & cleaning ritual, only the eggs adhere to the rock.

Bubble Nest layers, like bettas will build a bunch of bubbles with spit & air that floats. The female will deposit her eggs in the floating nest & the male will fertilize the eggs.

Similar bubble nest creatures like Gouramis will build a nest out of plant material & spit. It looks kinda like half an coconut with bubbles & spit holding it together.

There's also mop spawners like North American Killiefish. I"m not too experienced with these guys... but I do know that you can dry their fertilized eggs out, mail them cross country, plop them in water & they will hatch. Most people who breed these guys use craft yarn for them to breed on.

There's a lot of variety over child rearing.... Some fish like guppies will just turn around & eat their as soon as they pop out because they're stupid & they look like food. Some more evil parents will have either the male or the female defend a nest, while trying to kill everything in site (including their mate). While others are highly evolved, such as the convict cichlid... which forms monogomous pairs, and defends their young through adolescence, including protecting them from danger, wafting fresh water over them, herding them for protection, cleaning the babies in their mouths, euthanizing the mildly deformed, and leading them to food.

Lunatic's answer applies to about 90%+ of fish species across the world, so he has the correct answer in short and in general, but in detail its a lot more complicated.

So that's breeding.... Making love is a whole nother issue... Some fish like guppies do not court... they just sneak up on the female and *bang* stick it in her from behind and they're done. It lasts about 1/4 of a second & they do it all the time.

Most fish have rituals that they undergo before mating. They select mates on 2 factors, physical ability, and attractiveness... For the physical ability, they'll actually tustle a bit... They may fight a little by locking jaws to examine the other's physical strength. Sometimes, if they're found to be physically incompetent, they will kill them to keep them from breeding. Attractiveness is another factor in most fish. They tend to form pairs when they're growing up. They form from large groups of fish & pair off. Most fish species will not breed if you plop two adults into a tank. Many species need to make friends when they're growing up. Some fish aren't so picky though... Most of the time, they'll do a little dance around each other, nudge each other with their face. Often times they'll do a little showy dance to let the other one know they're in the mood.

My fish change colors when they want to breed. They're usually solid black, but when they want to breed their fins will turn blue & purple, and they will develop reflective spots on their bodies.

Answer 2

That is incorrect, they do not release the eggs. In most cases.

Fish like bettas guppies, ect... most pet fish have eggs insidie them, the mail swims around them "courting" them and then embraces them by squeezing them. He has then fertalized the eggs and the female (if a live birther) will give birth within a month or so later. And if they lay eggs, the eggs will then be released : )

Answer 3

Nope. Female fish lay eggs and the male fertilizes them. No love involved.

Answer 4

Male builds a nest. Female lays eggs in the nest. Male fertilizes eggs.

Answer 5

Nancy Kay, is right.

Except in livebearers like guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails.

The male goes very close to the female and releases his sperm, thus fertilizing the eggs inside her.

Answer 6

In most species, the female attaches her eggs to something in the water and the male swims by and ejects his sperm over the eggs.

Not the most romantic propagation, but hey, it works for them.

Answer 7

for most the female lays eggs and the male fertilizes them by emitting sperm and using his tail to fan it out amongst the eggs.

Answer 8

female lays eggs, males fertalize them, and some species actually are mouth carriers and will carry them in their mouth till they are born

Answer 9

no sex. The male well release sperm over already eggs