Relationships of Female Age and Size to Embryo Number and Size in the Shiner Perch, Cymatogaster aggregata

Abstract

Ages, lengths, and weights were determined for 124 female shiner perch, Cymatogaster aggregata Gibbons, collected in Yaquina Bay, Oregon, from May 17 through June 29, 1968. Embryos (1005) were obtained from 111 gravid females either by dissection (737) or at parturition in the laboratory (268). Embryo lengths, weights, and numbers per female parent were determined.As females increased in age from 1 to 6 years, their mean fork length increased from 9.32 to 13.65 cm, their weight from 13.65 to 47.78 g, and the mean number of embryos per parent female increased from 5.83 to 20.00. The equations and their correlation coefficients (R) computed for the relationships of embryo number (Y) to parent female fork length, weight, and age are, respectively: log Y = −1.892 + 2.735 log X (R = 0.89); Y = 1.131 + 0.313 X (R = 0.70); and Y = 4.23 + 1.73 X (R = 0.51). Embryo size at birth was also directly related to female parent size. The equations computed for the relationships of total length of embryo at birth (Y) to parent female fork length and parent female weight are, respectively: Y = 24.211 + 1.620 X (R = 0.79); and Y = 0.384 + 0.015 X (R = 0.72). The equation computed for the relationship of embryo weight (Y) to embryo length at birth is Y = −2.266 + 0.712 X (R = 0.95).