1.5— 



X 



_i 



< _i 



3 < 



Q 3 



— Q 



> > 



2 Z 



O' CT> 



< z 



1.0 — 



o 

 cr 



Q. 



.5 — 



EGGS 



LARVAE 



Qv. RNA STARVED 



PROTEIN STARVED 



— .35 



.30 



25 



— .20 



— .15 



—.10 



— .05 



D 



■z. 



> 



< 



o 



c 

 > 



2 4 6 8 



DAYS AFTER SPAWNING 



10 



4 6 8 10 



DAYS AFTER HATCHING 



Figure l , — Time course of development of DNA, RNA, and protein content per individual winter flounder egg or larva, a) SC/c hatch; 

 b) starved larvae transferred to filtered seawater; c) most larvae showed no visible yolk; di food visible in gut of fed larvae. 



not begun feeding until day 7. Between the end of 

 the yolk-sac stage and initiation of feeding iday 7) 

 DNA content increased sharply while RNA and 

 protein decreased. Of the protein present in the 

 egg just prior to hatching, 45'7f was lost by the time 

 of feeding initiation. After feeding initiation 

 DNA, RNA, and protein content increased stead- 

 ily (Figure 1; Tables 1, 2i. 



The RNA and protein content of winter flounder 

 larvae transferred to filtered seawater prior to 

 feeding initiation continued to decrease until a 

 lOC^f mortality was observed between day 11 and 

 14 (Figure 1 1. Starved larvae did show an increase 



in DNA content on day 7 similar to that observed 

 in fed larvae. The RNA-DNA ratio of both starved 

 and fed larvae decreased from the end of the yolk- 

 sac stage through day 9. However, the RNA-DNA 

 ratio was significantly higher in fed larvae than 

 starved larvae on day 9. 



The RNA content of a second group of larvae 

 transferred to filtered seawater 28 days after 

 hatching decreased within 2 days, while both 

 DNA and protein content appeared to increase 

 (Table 1). After 4 days a decrease in all three 

 components was observed. A SO'/f mortality, con- 

 sisting almost entii'ely of the smaller individuals 



28 

 30 

 32 







2 



4 



C 



8 



C'' 



5 61 ±0 60 



5 64=0 66 

 5 68 = 54 



5 83=0 72 

 5 84=0 66 



5 44=0 80 



6 53 = 92 6 41=0 45 

 6 23 = 94 



4 74=0 73 

 4 75 = 1 4 

 3-95=0,22 

 8 91 ±0 66 

 8-15=267 



3 32=0 51 

 2 59=0 61 



99=0 13 



1 21=0 16 

 99=0 05 



2 17=041 

 1,92=0-46 



1 04=0 11 

 093=0 13 



37= 3 

 79= 4 

 43= 4 

 1 73 = 18 94= 4 

 86 = 24 



44=5 

 36-7 



427=042 

 4 81=0 56 3 16 = 26 

 3 99=0 50 2 78=0 29 

 3 98=0 06 



419=043 214=016 

 420 = 034 



^Number ot days starved fisti were m filtered seawaier 



^Data are means = 1 SD for 40 to 50 larvae 



'Data are means =1 SD ot three replicates containing 10 larvae eacti 



^Fish removed from fed population and transferred to filtered seawater 18 hi prior to sampling to clear stomach contents 



705 



