Diel periodicity of spawning in sciaenids

• DOI: 10.3354/meps027001
• Publication Date: 2007-09-13T11:18:34Z
• Authors: GJ Holt; SA Holt; CR Arnold
• Keywords: Diel vertical migration

Time of day was determined for spawning several species sciaenid fishes by examin~ng development stages eggs collected in estuarine and near-shore plankton samples.Estuarine samples were taken at different times night but newly spawned Cynoscion nebulosus Bairdiella chrysoura only during a period from just before to 3 or 4 hours after sunset.Sclaenops ocellatus Mentichirrhus sp.eggs Gulf Mexico samples, the morning, all contained tail-bud stage embryos, indicating evening these species.It is proposed that reduces predation on allowing dispersal when planktivores may be less active.Overnight reduced C, egg density 100 m-3 1 next afternoon.Lower densities would reduce mortality due predation.Egg experiments showed rates increased with increasing no difference found between trials run light total darkness.