Indeterminate Fecundity and Spawning Behavior of Captive Red Shiners–Fractional, Crevice Spawners

Nine pairs of red shiners Notropis lutrensis spawned 5 to 19 clutches each (4,701 to 8,248 eggs; mean = 6,177) between 13 June and 28 August 1983 in plastic wading pools. Clutches contained from 131 to 1,661 eggs (mean = 585). Mean clutch size for individuals ranged from 410 to 1,060 eggs. Over a 9-d period, 17 of 20 clutches were spawned between 0700 and 1200 hours. In horizontal crevices from 2 to 6 mm high, 62.3 and 22.5% of nearly 25,000 eggs were placed in the 2- and 3-mm crevices, respectively. Spawning females preferred crevices formed by red, orange, and green plates (71.4% of over 17,000 eggs) to those formed by black, blue, yellow, and white plates. Two females expelled eggs in groups averaging 48 and 71 eggs. A fish in 24-h light spawned 200 clutches (113,501 total eggs) in a 21-month test; daily spawning sometimes occurred at high temperatures (up to 34°C). Hatching began in 4 d at 26–28°C; oversized eggs yielded oversized larvae.