We've been processing our June catch of telescope shiners from Hurricane Creek. Many individuals have the largest gonads we've found yet, especially the males. I suspect that June may turn out to be the peak breeding month for telescopes in Hurricane Creek. Average female GSI (gonado-somatic index) is 14.9, average male GSI is 6.2, both very high values. Several females were about 30, which is to say that a third of their body mass is ovaries and eggs.
Below are the graphs for male and female GSI, from February to June. Both sexes show a clear trend from very low to very high GSI across these five months. Error bars indicate standard error.
Today we did a fair amount of dissecting preserved ovaries and photographing the eggs for future counts. I think we did 9 females from the June collection. So we should start generating that data in the next week or two. See you 'round....
Today we did a fair amount of dissecting preserved ovaries and photographing the eggs for future counts. I think we did 9 females from the June collection. So we should start generating that data in the next week or two. See you 'round....
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