FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80. NO. 4 



Functional length-length and length-weight 

 relationships for C. leucosteus are (length in mil- 

 limeters; weight in grams) 



FL=l.l3{SL) + 3.9 w = 1464 r 2 = 0.97 

 FL = 0.86 (TL) -2.0 n = U28 r 2 = 0.98 



log Wt = 2.907(log FL) - 4.367 

 n = 1,719 r 2 = 0.97 



log M = 2.858(log SL) - 4.078 

 w = 1,454 r 2 = 0.98 



log M = 2.903(log TL) -4.553 

 n = 1,416 r 2 = 0.97. 



Reproduction 



Male and female gonads of Calamus leucosteus 

 are paired glands suspended in the posterior 

 body cavity by mesorchia. They join posteriorly 

 into a common duct before the external genital 

 opening. Gonads must be examined histologic- 

 ally for determination of both sex and maturity. 

 Many of the 1,274 fish examined showed pro- 

 togyny. 



Immature female gonads possessed only small 

 (<100 At), densely basophilic oocytes (Fig. 5 A) 

 whereas developing ovaries showed a predomi- 

 nance of larger (~100-500 /j.) acidophilic oocytes 

 (Fig. 5B). Paraffin infiltration was poor in large 

 (~500-700 /i), hydrated oocytes and resulted in 

 unsatisfactory sections of ripe ovaries. Atretic 

 oocytes (Fig. 5C) were common in spent gonads 

 whereas resting tissue was identified by traces 

 of atresia and the predominance of small baso- 

 philic oocytes. Transitional gonads had most of 

 their bulk as nonactive ovarian tissue, while the 

 testicular tissue was developing (Fig. 5D). 



The small, immature testes showed little 

 spermatogenic activity and were largely com- 

 posed of primary and secondary spermatogonia. 

 Early spermatogenesis and all phases of sperm 



formation through packing of lumina with 

 spermatozoa (Fig. 6A) were characteristic of 

 developing testes. Ripe testes showed little 

 spermatogenesis with all lumina filled with 

 sperm. Spent testes had convoluted tubules with 

 evidence of residual sperm resorption. The 

 resorptive process was largely completed in 

 resting testes, and mitotic proliferation of 

 spermatogonia had started. 



Residual oocytes were present in 58% of the 

 males. These were treated as functional males 

 and all maturity stages (except immature) given 

 to normal males were applied to these primarily 

 male hermaphrodites (Fig. 6B). Traces of non- 

 active testicular tissue were found in 16.2% of the 

 females (Fig. 6C), and these were treated as func- 

 tional females. Juvenile hermaphrodites and a 

 few other specimens in which both types of 

 gonadal tissue were not only present, but equally 

 developed, were considered simultaneous her- 

 maphrodites (Fig. 6D). This phenomenon oc- 

 curred in 3.4% of all gonads and was excluded 

 from further analysis. 



Females (Fig. 7) accounted for about 80% of the 

 smaller, younger fishes, while males comprised 

 approximately 70% of the largest size groups and 

 about 80% of the oldest fish. Fish undergoing 

 transition were found in ages I through VII (Fig. 

 7) and clustered around inflection points of both 

 graphs (lengths: 18-25 cm FL; ages: II-I V). These 

 figures imply that about 20% of young males re- 

 main males throughout life and that approxi- 

 mately 20% of the females remain females. His- 

 tological evidence demonstrates no case of males 

 transforming to females and indicates females 

 occur in all size and age groups sampled. Thus, 

 approximately 60% of C. leucosteus undergo sex 

 reversal. 



This species spawns from April to August with 

 peak spawning probably in May (Table 4). Of the 

 fish examined, 100% were developing in March; 



TABLE 4.— Percentages of Calamus leucosteus in different gonadal states by month 



of capture. 



868 



