Marine Biology Commons^™

Reproductive Biology And Trophic Niche Of Hardhead Catfish In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Lucas G. Pensinger

LSU Master's Theses

Generally, marine fishes have very high fecundity with each female producing many small eggs which hatch into small larvae. However, Ariopsis felis, a species of marine catfish common to coastal Louisiana, has low fecundity and produces the largest eggs of the teleost fishes. Despite wide range and generally high abundance, we know very little of A. felis biology and population. The few existing studies of A. felis are older and often have questionable or unclear methodology.

I examined four aspects of A. felis reproductive biology: 1) reproductive timing,

2) fecundity, 3) length at first maturity, and 4) mouth brooding. …