Reproductive biology of an endemic amphidromous goby, Cotylopus acutipinnis, from La Réunion Island

Abstract

Amphidromous gobies living in the rivers of tropical islands display a high continuous reproductive effort in response to environmental unpredictability. Females are usually able to spawn a large number of eggs over an extended season, which contributes to offset the high larval mortality. The increasing human pressure on the insular aquatic systems threatens these gobies and highlights the urgent need to acquire knowledge on their biology for management purposes. The present study investigated the reproductive traits of the endemic amphidromous goby, Cotylopus acutipinnis, in a river of La Réunion Island. Ovarian histology showed that females were multiple spawners with a group-synchronous ovarian follicle development and an indeterminate fecundity. Females reproduced from 28.6-mm TL and laid their eggs in a unique event (from 3226 to 106840 eggs), with a spawning frequency of ~1 month or less. The drop in reproductive activity coincided with lower water temperatures and a decrease in daylight duration. Evidence suggested that spawning activity was not disturbed by flooding events recorded a few days before sampling. We suggested that the temperature threshold inducing the ovarian growth (18.3°C for C. acutipinnis) could be a determinant factor explaining the specific repartition of gobies throughout the river.