No abstract

Spawning and successful rearing of larvae of honeycomb grouper Epinephelus merra Bloch 1793 upto juvenile stage was accomplished at the ¢n¢sh hatchery of Mandapam Regional Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute during 2004. The fertilized eggs were free, spherical and buoyant with size ranging from 710 to 730 mm. Complete early embryonic development took place within 24^27 h and hatching occurred. The hatchlings measured1.5 mm. Mouth opening (115 mm) appeared at 72 h when the larvae were 2.2 mm in size. Pectoral ¢n developed on the ¢fth day. Complete metamorphosis took place and by the 60th day the larvae transformed into juveniles (45 mm) and attained skin colouration and honeycomb pattern.

Compensatory growth has been reported in stunted fish by several researchers, and the same has been applied at field level for enhancing the fish production. Many of the commercially important marine finfishes such as European seabass (Adakli & Tasbozan, 2015),

Copepods are the most abundant group of zooplankton and are important as live feeds for marine finfish larvae due to their smaller

− The sandbird octopus Amphioctopus aegina (Gray, 1849) is one of the important octopod species in trawl catches in Mandapam waters (Palk Bay). The reproductive biology of this species from these waters was studied from October 2001 to September 2002. In the majority of months(Jan-June), the sex ratio was biased towards males. The ratios of males to females increased consistently with respect to weight Total weight at first maturity were 78.78g for females and 40.8 g for males. Four maturity stags were recognized for females and two for males. Maturation and spawning occur all year round, with a peak during October and another peak during JanuaryFebruary. In males, no definite seasonal changes were observed in gonadosomatic index (GSI) values. In females there were two peaks in GSI values during October and January-February. For individuals of a DML range of 67-85 mm fecundity varied between 2,962-8,820 oocytes. The average relative fecundity was estimated at 68 to 83 and the average number oocytes per gram of ovary were 488 to 539.