 The highest expression of these genes was temporally correlated with egg-spot formation.A SINE (short interspersed repetitive element) was also seen to be associated with egg-spots.Specifically, it was evident upstream of the transcriptional start site of fhl2 in only haplochrominis species with egg-spots

Pit-spawning, also referred to as substrate breeding, is a behavior in cichlid fish in which a fish will build a pit in the sand or ground where they will court their mate and consequently spawn with them.