Reproductive biology of Yellowfin Seabream Acanthopagrus latus in coastal waters of Hormozgan

Some reproductive biology features of Yellowfin Seabream Acanthopagrusl atus including gonadosomatic index, hepatosomatic index, sex ratio, macroscopic and microscopic survey of gonad development, frequency of different maturationstages and absolute and relative fecundity were investigated. Thirty fish per month were sampled during September 2011 to August 2012 in coastal waters of Hormozgan province. The most frequent maturation stage at 4 was in March and April and the highest gonadosomatic index was in April with 7.48 and the lowest value was in August with 0.28. The trend of gonadosomatic index indicated that the spawning season ranges from January to the end of Aprilwith the peak in April and in a batch spawning mechanism. Hepatosomatic index revealed a significant increasing trend from December and reached to the peak in March and April. Considering the sex reversing of male to female in this species, it was confirmed that they are protandric hermaphrodite. Sex ratio showed the value of 2.7 which indicates a significant difference between the number of males and females (P< 0.05). Maximum and minimum values of absolute fecundity were estimated 2530780 and 1431520 eggs, respectively. The highest and least amounts of relative fecundity were 3778 and 2373 eggs, respectively with maximum and minimum total length and weight of 37.2 and 21.4 cm and 965.5 and 378.9 gr, respectively.