FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 79, NO. 3 



5.00-  

 4.80 • 

 4.60  

 4.40 

 I 4.20+ 



i 4.00- 



ea 



3.80-- 



3.60- • 



3.40- - 

 3.35 



H 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • 1 1 ' 



L08F= 1.302 log W* 1.968 

 11^=. 816 

 P<.01. 11=42 



1.20 1.40 L60 1.80 2.00 



LoG,D Ovary-Free Body Weight ing 



2.20 



Figure 7. — Relation between the common logarithms of batch 

 fecundity and ovary-free body weight of queenfish collected 

 March-August 1979. Regression is the least squares best fit. 



Residual Ova 



Since not all of the eggs that are ripened and 

 ovulated might be shed, we estimated the num- 

 bers of residual, ovulated eggs present in the 

 ovaries of recently spawned, night sample fish. 

 Numbers of residual ova were trivial (Table 7), 

 indicating that females ovulate and shed virtually 

 all of the eggs that undergo hydration. 



Annual Egg Production 



The spawning season of S. politus near San 



Table 7. — Numbers of residual (ovulated but unspawned) 

 eggs' present in spent (Stage 5) ovaries of queenfish. Numbers 

 of residual eggs also expressed as percent of batch fecundity 

 (estimated from standard length). 



Diego lasts 3-6 mo, being longer for larger females 

 (Table 2). Since batch fecundity is also propor- 

 tional to female body size, annual egg production 

 of individual fish ranges greatly. We estimate that 

 a 10.5 cm female, spawning once every 7.4 d during 

 May-July, produces about 60,000 eggs, whereas a 

 25 cm fish that spawns once every 7.4 d over a 6-mo 

 period (March- August) produces nearly 2.3 mil- 

 lion eggs. The relatively huge egg production by 

 large S. politus thus reflects both greater numbers 

 of spawnings over a longer season and larger 

 batch fecundities. 



Relative Fecundity 



The numbers of eggs produced per unit of body 

 weight, i.e., "relative fecundity" (Nikolskii 1969), 

 is an increasing function of body size in S. politus 

 (Figures 4, 8). On a per spawning basis, larger 

 females allocate relatively more energy to egg 



S 26 



1 2 



H IE 18 20 



LoG,o ovary-free body weight (G) 



' Based on examination of 16 females (X = 16.2cmSL, range 12. 1-22.0 cm) 

 collected March- August 1979. 



Figure 8. — Relation between relative fecundity (as the batch 

 numbers of eggs per gram ovary-free body weight) and ovary- 

 free body weight of queenfish collected March-August 1979. 

 Transformation of raw data to common logarithms provided a 

 tighter correlation (greater R^) than untransformed data. 



554 



