parental care

Any investment by parents in offspring that increases the offsprings' chances of surviving (and hence reproducing). In fish, parental care can take a variety of forms including guarding, nest building, fanning, splashing, removal of dead eggs, retrieval of straying fry, external egg carrying, egg burying, moving eggs or young, ectodermal feeding, oral brooding, internal gestation, brood-pouch egg carrying, etc.