Polyandry in fish

Polyandry in fish means that a female fish can have many male partners to mate with. It's like when you have many friends to play with, but instead of playing, they make babies together!

In many fish species, males release their sperm (which is like a tiny cell with half of the DNA needed to make a baby) into the water where the females are. The female then swims through the sperm and picks it up with her eggs, which are like tiny round balls that she carries inside her body.

Most fish are very picky about who they mate with, and they only choose one partner. But in polyandrous fish, the female will mate with many different males and store all of their sperm inside her body. This means that when she releases her eggs, they have a mix of DNA from different dads!

There are different reasons why polyandry happens in fish. Sometimes it's because the female needs a lot of sperm to make sure her eggs become babies. Other times, it's because the males are not very good at taking care of the babies - so the female needs to mate with many males to make sure some of the babies survive.

Overall, polyandry is a really cool way that some fish species reproduce and make sure their babies are healthy and strong!