Aspects of fecundity of some fishes from the Sudanese coast off Suakin

Abstract

The mean total length and age at first maturity were established for Nemipterus japonicus, Leiognathus virgatus, Gerres oyena, Saurida undosquamis, Mulloidichthys flavolineatus and Terapon theraps from the Sudanese coast off Suakin. Five maturity stages were identified for each species. Females dominated in 53.3% of the cases, but not significantly (p > 0.05) in 40% of the cases, and the sex ratio was equal in two cases (6.7%). The lowest recorded fecundity was 150,500 eggs in M. flavolineatus and the highest was 1,950,342 eggs in G. oyena. April-June was the breeding season for N. japonicus, L. virgatus and G. oyena while May-July was the breeding season for S. undosquamis, M. flavolineatus and T. theraps. In all six species, the logarithmic relationships between fecundity and total length were very highly significant (p 0.001).