 Similarly, only around 30% of South American cichlids are thought to retain the ancestral substrate-brooding trait.Mouthbrooding is thought to have evolved individually up to 14 times, and a return to substrate brooding as many as 3 separate times between both African and Neotropical species.Cichlids have a great variety of behaviors associated with substrate-brooding, including courtship and parental care alongside the brooding and nest-building behaviors needed for pit-spawning.