Condition and growth of reef fish at settlement: Is it important?

The incorporation of information on the phenotypic attributes and performance offish into models of population dynamics may greatly enhance our ability to predict population change. To date, reef‐fish research has concentrated on numerical aspects of the recruitment process, with little attention to the quality of recruits. Information reviewed here suggests that the attributes of individual fish, be they related to fish size, performance or condition at the end of the larval phase, may markedly influence the dynamics of the demersal life stages. This review briefly explores the levels of variability in some aspects of fish condition at settlement, the mechanisms by which this variability is enhanced or affected by density‐dependent processes, and the ramifications of this phenotypic variability for the persistence of cohorts.