There are several lakes and many rivers with deep pools in which water is found throughout the year, in and around Udaipur city in Rajasthan. These lakes and river pools harbour Murrel (Channa marulius) in good numbers and are full of aquatic vegetation. The peak time of breeding here for Murrel is May, June and July.

When eggs hatch, both the male and female guard their offsprings. The brood moves in a group guided by the female and the male remains on the periphery of the bunch, attacking and chasing carnivorous fishes or other animals like turtles, water snakes and even birds. The female too sometimes attacks intruders and guides the brood cautiously from one hiding place to another in shallow water, always keeping itself beneath the brood.

The pair with a brood seldom takes any bait. If you put a live frog or fish or even drag the bait right through the midst of the brood they don’t bother to look at it. They simply divert their course to avoid it. If bait is suddenly put amidst the bunch, sometimes the female catches it but this is mainly a protective reaction. Until the offsprings are able to look after themselves, the parents occasionally eat them. Several times freshly killed Murrel with brood when dissected has remains of one of its offsprings in the stomach.

Locally Murrels with their offsprings are called jaam. On 13^th May 1987, I was going around Fatehsagar lake of Udaipur. In the shallow waters near the shore I saw a jaam and stopped to watch it. It was a beautiful sight. Periodically a small black cloud would emerge from the depths of the murky waters. With the parents on the vigil in the backdrop some or the other young Murrel after gulping in the air would dive down into the water in a jiffy. This jaam slowly moved into a small shallow channel of water near the shore. A Blue Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) after drinking water flew very low over this channel. This was taken as a threat and was countered by one of the parents, the male Murrel, with amazing swiftness. It catapulted out of the water to hit the intruder and with this act the unfortunate Murrel landed on dry land, about 40 ft away from water, but managed to struggle back into the lake.

Such dedicated parental care in fishes is a marvel indeed.