Abstract
We studied the reproductive biology of the endemic Iranian cichlid Iranocichla hormuzensis, a maternal mouthbrooder, in the Mehran River. Overall sex ratio was 1.44 M: 1F indicating a significant male bias. Monthly sex ratios did not differ from unity except in May and June when the sex ratios were strongly biased in favor of males. Four different reproductive indices and the high frequency of large oocytes, all suggest that the Iranian cichlid spawns at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Mircoscopic gonadal maturation stages for both males and females were correlated to the gonadosomatic indices. The maximum number of larvae in the mouth of a female was 153.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Brian W. Coad from Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada and F. Hosseini, Sh. Hosseini, M. Nokhbeh from Shiraz University for their valuable suggestions, H. Dehdar, M. Ebrahimi and Z. Piravar for helping in fish collection and technical assistance. This work was funded by Shiraz University.
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Esmaeili, H.R., Ganjali, Z. & Monsefi, M. Reproductive biology of the endemic Iranian cichlid, Iranocichla hormuzensis Coad, 1982 from Mehran River, southern Iran. Environ Biol Fish 84, 141–145 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9397-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9397-8