Reproduction of Carangoides vinctus (Perciformes: Carangidae), in the central Mexican Pacific

Abstract

This study aims to determine some aspects of the reproduction of C. vinctus , a species caught by the artisanal fishery on the south coast of Jalisco. The captures were made monthly with gillnets from January 1998 to December 2008. The organisms had total length of 17.0 to 41.2 cm, with females averaging 30.1 cm and 30.5 cm males. The sex ratio was 1.0 : 1.1 males for females, which is not significantly different from the expected 1:1. A scale of gonadal maturity with four stages in both sexes (immature, developing, mature and spawned) was used. In the first three stages of the ovary’s development, a septum dividing each lobe into two was present. In the analysis of oogenesis seven phases of oocyte development were identified and the oocytes developed asynchronously within the ovary. Based on the microscopic characteristics observed in the testis, it presented a development of lobular type. The maximum values ​​of the gonadosomatic index, the percentage of mature gonads and larger diameters of oocytes suggest that C. vinctus has a reproductive period from March to May. The length of sexual maturity (L 50 ) was estimated as 26.04 and 23.77 cm for females and males, respectively; these sizes are lower than the average catch size in both sexes, suggesting that organisms are caught commercially when they have reached sexual maturity.