New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Reproductive biology and population structure of the banded wrasse, Notolabrus fucicola (Labridae) around Kaikoura, New Zealand

Christopher M. Denny*
David R. Schiel

Marine Ecology Research Group
Zoology Department
University of Canterbury
P.O. Box 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
*Present address: Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland, P.O. Box 349, Warkworth, New Zealand.
Email: c.denny@auckland.ac.nz

Abstract   Notolabrus fucicola Richardson, a large common labrid inhabiting rocky reefs around New Zealand and southern Australia, were collected monthly from December 1996 to February 1998 around Kaikoura, New Zealand. They were found to be asynchronous spawners and followed the typical labrid spring-summer seasonal pattern of reproduction from July to December. Compared with other New Zealand labrids that are protogynous hermaphrodites, N. fucicola was found to be a secondary gonochorist, where individuals change sex before maturation. It is a dichromatic species but not sexually dimorphic. It is also monandric where only one morphological male type is present. Despite finding no transitional gonads, it is still possible that particular environmental or social conditions could induce sex change in at least a small proportion of fishes.

Keywords   colour phases; spawning; gonochorist; temperate; reef fish

M01055 Received 2 July 2001; accepted 22 April 2002; published 17 September 2002
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2002, Vol. 36: 555-563
0028-8330/02/3603-0555 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2002

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