It Must be Just Right!

In early spring, male #garibaldi begins to establish a spawning area in his territory that contains specific types of red algae. He continuously grooms and cleans the algae to prepare the nesting site. This takes as long as one month. When the nest is ready the male will approach females and attempt to entice them to come to his nesting site by making a loud clucking sound and then dashing over to the nest. Females are very selective. The nest must be well groomed and already have eggs deposited. They inspect the nest site and if she approves of the nest, egg color, and the male, she will lay her eggs which are then fertilized by the male. He immediately drives away the female to prevent her from eating the eggs. Several females may deposit eggs in the same nest and a female may deposit eggs in several different nests. The male carefully grooms and fans the eggs. He aggressively protects the nest.

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