Abstract
The striped goby, Gobius vittatus Vinciguerra, 1883 is a Mediterranean gobiid species considered to be rare and lacking in data on its reproduction. Sex ratio, length and age at first maturity, annual cycle of gonad development, spawning period and fecundity of G. vittatus were studied on 704 specimens collected by SCUBA diving in the northern Adriatic Sea (Kvarner area) from April 2001 to March 2002. The monthly sex ratio did not differ significantly, except during the spawning season, when it was strongly biased in favour of females. The estimated length at first maturity was 32.8 and 35.4 mm for females and males, respectively. In both sexes gonad development started in the first year of life. All specimens were mature by the third year. The spawning season was from April to July. Total fecundity ranged from 560 to 3045, with an average of 1426 ± 89 ripe eggs/fish. The simultaneous presence of three clearly distinct sizes of oocytes in ripe ovaries indicate that this species is a multiple spawner.
Highlights
With 59 species, Gobiidae is the most specious fish family in the Mediterranean (Kovacic, 2005)
Detailed studies of reproductive biology of gobiid species based on yearround samples are rare and currently there are no data on reproduction for more than half of the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic gobiid species (Kovacic, 2001)
The aim of this paper is to provide the first data on reproduction of G. vitattus, including the sex ratio, length and age at first maturity, annual cycle of gonad development, spawning period, relationship of the reproductive cycle and liver storage, fecundity and recruitment of young
Summary
With 59 species, Gobiidae is the most specious fish family in the Mediterranean (Kovacic, 2005). Most gobies are not collected and the conventional fishing gears are in most cases useless. Detailed studies of reproductive biology of gobiid species based on yearround samples are rare and currently there are no data on reproduction for more than half of the Mediterranean and northeastern Atlantic gobiid species (Kovacic, 2001). The striped goby, Gobius vittatus Vinciguerra, 1883 was considered to be rare (Tortonese, 1975) or very rare (Jardas, 1985) due to the lack of data. For a long time only morphology and habitat of the striped goby were known from the few papers published since the species description, based on one or two specimens
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