bluegill sunfish males have two distinct patterns of reproduction and survival: parental and cuckolder. parental sunfish often show dominant mating strategies such as courting with females, building nests for the young and caring for young independently. the cuckolder sunfish are much less dominant than the parental males and tend to revert to alternative mating strategies including sneaking or female mimicry. the fitness of the individual males is the main determining factor of which mating strategy they will use.