FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 1 



no evidence that males ever eat their own eggs, 

 they apparently are able to distinguish their own 

 progeny or nest from those of other individuals. 

 Male gobies do not fast while incubating eggs. 

 In fact, tihey temporarily left their nests to feed 

 on brine shrimp (Artemia) introduced into 

 aquariums. 



SPAWNING SEASON OF 

 GOBIOSOMA BOSCI 



The spawning season of many marine fishes 

 becomes longer to the south along the U.S. At- 

 lantic coast in relation to warmer waters. Naked 

 gobies spawn in the warmer months and both 

 ends of their spawning season become protracted 

 to the south. In New York waters G. bosci 

 probably spawns from June through August 

 (Greeley, 1939; Perlmutter, 1939). Nests of 

 G. bosci were found in late May and June in New 

 Jersey (Nelson, 1928) . Small G. bosci (4-7 mm) 

 occur from June through October in Delaware 

 (de Sylva et al, 1962). Spawning apparently 

 occurs from May through October in Virginia 

 (Massmann et al., 1963; Schwartz, 1961; Hilde- 

 brand and Schroeder, 1928). On the Carolina 

 coast spawning is from June to October (Kuntz, 

 1916; Breder and Rosen, 1966) and possibly 

 beginning in late April or early May (Hildebrand 

 and Cable, 1938). We found G. bosci nesting 

 in oyster patches only during the peak of its 

 spawning season in Georgia, from April 24 

 through July (Table 2). Its spawning season 

 commences in early April in Mississippi and ex- 

 tends to October in Mississippi (Dawson, 1966) 

 and Tampa Bay (Springer and Woodburn, 1960) . 



The spawning season of G. bosci probably 

 ranges from a 3-month period, June-August, in 

 New York to a 6- or 7-month period on the Gulf 

 coast. Mean monthly water temperatures can 

 be used as a rough indication of the relationship 

 of temperature and spawning season; however, 

 these may be somewhat extreme for the months 

 at the beginning and ending of the breeding 

 season. Temperature data are from U.S. Coast 

 and Geodetic Survey (1961) stations at Mon- 

 tauk. Long Island, N.Y.; Breakwater Harbor, 

 Del.; Gloucester, Va.; Southport, N.C. ; and 

 Eugene Island, La. Mean temperatures at the 



beginning and ending of spawning were 16° and 

 21°C in New York, 20° and 17°C in Delaware, 

 20° and 19°C in Virginia, 18° (April) or 23° 

 (May) and 26°C in North Carolina, and 20° and 

 23°C on the central Gulf coast. Spawning com- 

 menced at 20°C in New Jersey (Nelson, 1928). 

 Pending more thorough studies of spawning sea- 

 sons, it can be concluded that spawning of G. 

 bosci commences in the spring when water tem- 

 peratures are 16° to 20°C and terminates in the 

 fall or late summer. 



The peak of spawning activity is in the warm- 

 est months. May through August, from New 

 York to the Gulf coast. Therefore, this peak 

 is related to temperature seasonally, but it does 

 not change geographically in relation to temper- 

 ature as Dahlberg (1970) demonstrated for the 

 Atlantic menhaden, although summer maximums 

 (mean monthly temperatures) range from 21°C 

 in New York to 30°C in Louisiana. Higher sum- 

 mer maximums of 30° to 31°C in Tampa Bay 

 apparently suppressed the spawning of a con- 

 gener, G. robustum (Springer and McErlean, 

 1961). 



SPAWNING SEASON OF 

 GOBIOSOMA GINSBURGI 



Available data indicate that the spawning 

 season of G. ginsburgi is very similar to that of 

 G. bosci. G. ginsburgi probably spawned from 

 July to October in Delaware as 2 to 6-mm larvae 

 were found in these months (de Sylva et al., 

 1962). One G. ginsburgi was ripe in May in 

 Virginia (Hildebrand and Schroeder, 1928). 

 In oyster patches males were incubating nests 

 on April 24 when the shallowwater temperature 

 was 26°C in May and June. An 8-mm specimen 

 dredged in Sapelo Sound on August 28 was 

 probably spawned in August. If spawning con- 

 tinued into the fall as in Delaware, it may be 

 restricted to deep waters since no nests were 

 found after June. The stomach of a Urophycis 

 floridaruis contained three female G. ginsburgi 

 (22-30 mm) that were gravid and appeared to 

 be ready to spawn. The U. floridanus was 

 trawled on 1 May 1969 in water depth over 

 7.6 m in the North Newport River, Liberty 



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