Reproductive Demography of Tilefish from the South Atlantic Bight with a Test for the Presence of Protogynous Hermaphroditism

Abstract

Abstract Length and age at maturity were determined for tilefish Lopholatilus chamaeleonticeps collected off the Georgia coast during the reproductive season. Fifty percent of the females were mature at a total length (TL) of 500 mm and an age of 6 years (the youngest female collected), whereas 50% of males were mature at 450 mm TL and 5 years of age (the youngest male collected); true sizes and ages of median maturity may be less. Fecundity estimates increased nonlinearly with tilefish weight, length, and age and ranged from approximately 0.85 × 106 to 8.5 × 106 eggs for fish ranging from 573 mm TL (2.0 kg, 8 years) to 899 mm TL (8.9 kg, 20 years), respectively. The relationship between fecundity (F) and length was: Log eF = (4.749 logeTL) - 16.508; r2= 0.93; N = 31. We observed disproportionately large numbers of females at smaller lengths and of males at larger lengths. This would be expected if protogynous hermaphroditism were common among tilefish in the South Atlantic Bight. Skewed sex ratios, howev...