Does The Male Stickleback Change Its Color? If So, When Does It Do That?

Yes the male stickleback does change its color to red. It changes to red at the inception of the breeding season that is always in spring. Throughout the year, the belly of the fish is silver in color, the rest of its body varying from green to brown. However once the breeding season commences, the male stickleback changes its color to a bright red primarily for the reason of attracting its female counterparts for mating.

While building the home and taking care of its family, a male stickleback tends to do some jobs, which are normally considered the domain of female fish. For one, he chooses the appropriate place for a nest and secretes a threadlike web from its kidney, which it uses to bind the collection of stems of aquatic plants of various kinds. This is all done to attract the female stickleback into his nest. Once she has come and laid her eggs, the male stickleback looks after the eggs with great care after she has departed and even takes good care of the baby fish once they have hatched.

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