FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 74, NO. 2 



Spawning Behavior 



Female L. inquilinus may initiate spawning 

 activity. In laboratory aquaria females with dis- 

 tended abdomens were the most active. They 

 often swam in quick dashes around the sides of 

 the aquarium then up to the surface and down 

 again. During these dashes, the snout came out of 

 the water and there was considerable splashing. 

 Similar behavior has been reported for L. atlan- 

 ticus females (Detwyler 1963). This activity often 

 lasted several minutes and on one occasion 7 min 

 and 20 s. Occasionally during these excited 

 dashes the females would bump into other fish, 

 both males and females. In a few instances, this 

 activity seemed to excite other females and they 

 also became active. In one instance, a ripe female 

 repeatedly nudged with her snout a fish of un- 

 known sex that was attached to the side of the 

 aquarium. Soon a prominent bulge appeared just 

 posterior to the genital papilla of the female. This 

 has been observed just before spawning in L. at- 

 lanticus (Detwyler 1963) and Cyclopterus lumpus 

 (Cowan 1929). In this instance, the nudged fish 

 did not respond and the female swam away. The 

 bulge receded after about 5 min. Sexually mature 

 males are covered with numerous prickles while 

 the females usually lack these or have only a few. 

 Thus, the female may be able to recognize males 

 by making contact with them. Breeding tubercles 

 and contact organs in fishes may function in 

 maintenance of body contact between the sexes 

 during spawning and stimulation during breed- 

 ing (Wiley and Collette 1970). The prickles on L. 

 inquilinus males may function in these ways also. 

 Spawning was not observed but is probably simi- 

 lar to that inL. atlanticus (Detwyler 1963). In the 

 laboratory, L. inquilinus deposited small clumps 

 of 20-80 eggs on the bottom of the aquaria and 

 did not guard them. The eggs collected on 9 

 March 1973 off New Jersey were attached to 

 hydroids as has been reported for L. liparis 

 (Ehrenbaum 1905). The larvae that hatched in 

 the laboratory did not survive beyond yolk sac 

 absorption. 



Larvae 



In the Mid-Atlantic Bight, larvae of L. in- 

 quilinus are planktonic during the spring. Dur- 

 ing monthly larval fish surveys in 1966-67 by the 

 Sandy Hook Laboratory, 98% of the L. inquilinus 

 larvae were collected in May (Figure 1) from deep 

 and shallow tows. These averaged 5.1 mm TL 



(range 3.2-12.0 mm TL). Larvae were most abun- 

 dant in samples collected nearest to shore (Figure 

 2). Other larvae of the same average size have 

 been collected during May from inshore waters in 

 the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank (Table 1, 

 Fig. 3). Larvae larger than 13 mm TL were usu- 

 ally not found in the plankton. 



72" 



70° 



..s> 



4I<= 



70° 



40° 



39° 



\72° 

 38° 



37 = 



73° 



36° 



Figure 2. — Distribution and abundance of larval Liparis 

 inquilinus from Dolphin cruise D-66-5 during May 1966. 



Juveniles 



In the Mid-Atlantic Bight, juvenile L. in- 

 quilinus are associated with sea scallops from 

 August through December. Stevenson^ reported 



^Stevenson, J. A. Fish. Res. Board Can., St. Andrews, New 

 Brunswick, Manuscr. Rep. 373. 



412 



