Unlikely though it may seem, some cichlids can actually remove snails from their shells before swallowing them. Others can make females “cough up” their babies—and then they eat them.
Cichlids form one of the largest and most varied families of freshwater fish known to science. Some are as small as a paperclip, and others are as large as a small shark. Some are circular, like a dinner plate, and others are thin, like a pencil. Despite the wide range of sizes, shapes, colors, and behaviors found in cichlids, there is one unusual feature that is common to them all.While the vast majority of fish have two
