<span style="font-size:15.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-IN;mso-fareast-language:EN-IN;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Gonadal maturation profile and fecundity of the <i>Johnieops sina</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic"> (Cuvier, 1830) from Ratnagiri coast of India</span></span>

Abstract

<span style="font-size:9.0pt;line-height:115%; font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-bidi-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:="" en-in;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">Sin Croacker, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Johnieops sina</i> (Cuvier, 1830) is one of the commercially important and common demersal fish in the coastal waters of Ratnagiri along southern Maharashtra, India. In the context of local demand and economic importance, the gonadal maturation profile and fecundity of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">J. sina</i> has been studied. Spent, mature and maturing females were recorded in almost all months of the year suggesting the multiple and prolonged breeding behaviour. Result also indicated marginal dominance of males over females except September (1:0.49), where significant predominance of male was observed at 5% level of significant. Absolute fecundity ranged from 24,800 to 126,880 eggs (average: 83,313) from the ovary weighing between 1.28 to 5.2 g. Monthly changes in the Gonado-somatic and Hepato-somatic Index (GSI & HSI) also revealed it’s prolong spawning with two peaks; the first peak in September-November and the second in February-April, which indicates <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">J. sina</i> spawn twice in a year. Females of the species were found to attain sexual maturity at a minimum size of 131 mm total length. </span>