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- Reach sexual maturity at 4 to 5 years
- Iteroparous - spawn once per year
- Oviparous
- Females produce up to 10 million eggs per year
- Eggs are buoyant (pelagic eggs)
- No parental care after eggs hatch

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- dominant or recessive
- sex linked or not
- if there are linkages to diseases and weakening recessive traits
- mates should be chosen from varying population to reduce loss of size of gene pool

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This is when eggs are laid outside of the female fish body. This is then fertilised by the male.

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Male parental care: Sea Catfishes (Ariidae)
Female parental care:
Oviparity (post spawning care) - cichlidae genus
Ovoviviparity (without post spawning care) - rockfishes, genus Sebastes
Viviparity (without post spawning care) - Elasmobranchs, sirs perches
Biparental care - bullheads (Ictaluridae), several cichlid genera.
Juvenile helpers - Some African cichlids ( genus Lamprologus)

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Male paternal care: Father looks after the young only
Female care: Mother looks after the young only
Biparental care: Both parents look after the young
Juvenile helpers: Older siblings help to look after younger siblings/eggs

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- Eggs that float
- Common in marine fish
- Takes a shorter time to hatch
- Contains less dense fluid or oil droplet for buoyancy

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- Young develops in the uterus where nutrients are supplied directly from the mother via a placenta
- Therefore young is usually developmentally advanced as compared to youngs from other forms of hatching
- Eg. Dolphin and whales

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- Eggs that sink
- Common in freshwater fishes
- Takes longer time to hatch

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- Egg hatches in uterus
- Young/youngs will consume the nutrients in the egg and their siblings
- One pup is released into the environment
- Eg. Manta rays

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- Large number of eggs are layed which can be either pelagic or demersal
- Newly hatched fry are smaller and less develop as there are limited nutrients in the egg
- Eg. Guppies

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Organisms that reproduce multiple times in their lifetime.

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Organisms that reproduce once in their life time or have a period of more than 2 years between each spawn

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- Testes are bigger
- Testes are also rough in edges
- Pressure to abdomen and milt flows out

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- Ovaries are bigger and occupy almost the entire body cavity.
- Ovaries are also smooth and transparent.
- Eggs can be seen and are extruding with pressure on their abdomen.

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- slitting the belly of the fish to allow retrieval of eggs or collection of milt easily.
- Can either be done with the intention of sacrificing it or allowing it to live by stitching back the cut.
- this method can be preferred as hand stripping and air stripping is difficult for some species of fish that do not have an ovarian sac such as sturgeon and paddlefish.
https://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/SRAC-Publication-No.-426-Techniques-for-Taking-and-Fertilizing-the-Spawn-of-Fish.pdf (page 3 of 8)

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- Air is injected into the fish at low pressures(should not exceed 0.5 L/min to prevent damage to eggs) to force milt/eggs to expel from the lower abdomen of the fish
- no harm is done to the fish
- air stripping is preferred over hand stripping due to less damage to eggs, allowing more eggs to hatch. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/1/97/htm

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- Abdomen of fish is massaged from anterior(nearer to head) to posterior(nearer to rear).
- Function is to force out milt from males and eggs from females
- No harm is done to the fish

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Most commercial fish species lack parental care

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Process where sexually mature male and female fish release their eggs and sperm to undergo fertilization and produce offspring

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1. visual cues - most males can develop breeding colouration when ready for spawning

2. Acoustical cues - fish can modify their vocalisation using their swim bladder, pectoral fins, teeth or sonic muscles for drumming sound

3. Low frequency Mechanosensory cues - lateral displays and quivering in courtship and agonistic encounters

4. Chemical cues - endogenous steroid hormones act as sex pheromones that increase physiological and behavioural competence and help to synchronise gamete release

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The female and male gonads would undergo morphological and histological changes before reaching full maturity.

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Gonochorism - Having a separate male and female sex.
Hermaphroditism - Having both male and female sexual organs and sexual characteristics.
Protogynous - Having female reproductive organs come to maturity first and then the male.
Protandrous - Having male reproductive organs come to maturity first and then the female.
Intromittent organ  - The male copulatory organ of an organism.
Spawning - The process where there is a release of eggs and sperms by sexually mature male and female fish.
Semelparous -  Having one reproductive episode before its death.
Iteroparous - Having many reproductive cycles throughout its life.
Pelagic eggs - Eggs that are able to float.
Demersal eggs - Eggs that sink.
Ovoviviparity - The young receive no nutrients from its mother even though there is live bearing.
Viviparity - The eggs develop whilst receiving nutrients from parents and the fish gives birth to live young.
Pseudoplacenta - Forms from the ovarian follicle found in some cyprinids.
Branchialplacenta - When the ovary forms highly vascularised folds that would make contact with the gills of the developing embryos.