Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 16, Issue 1 – 20 Januray 2010

Matthew L. Wittenrich, Carole C. Baldwin, Ralph G. Turingan: Larval development of laboratory-reared Green Mandarin, Synchiropus splendidus (Teleostei: Callionymidae), pp. 7-18    

Abstract
Larvae of Synchiropus splendidus (Herre, 1927) were obtained from natural spawnings of two wild-collected pairs of adults. Egg and larval development of S. splendidus is similar to that described for other callionymids. Eggs measure 0.8 mm in diameter and hatch after 13-16 hours at 26°C. Newly hatched larvae measure 1.56 ± .04 mm NL and begin feeding four days post-hatching (DPH) at 1.74 ± .06mm NL. The notochord accounts for 20% of the body length at 12 DPH. Larvae lack heavy ventral pigmentation, but have three distinctive lines of pigment on the posterior portion of the body – one along the base of the dorsal fin, one along the base of the anal fin, and one along mid-body. Larvae exhibit an ontogenetic color change from yellow to orange prior to settlement. Incidence of settlement was highest between 16-20 DPH. Ontogeny, including osteological development, is des­cribed from hatching to the juvenile stage.