Cobia - Life History

Life History

Cobia are pelagic spawners; that is, they release many tiny (1.2 mm) buoyant eggs into the water which become part of the plankton. The eggs float freely with the currents until hatching. The larvae are also planktonic, being more or less helpless during their first week until the eyes and mouths develop. Males mature at two years and females at three years. Both sexes lead moderately long lives of 15 years or more. Spawning takes place diurnally from April to September in large offshore congregations where females are capable of spawning up to 30 times during the season. Up to 20 individual spawns may take place in one season, with intervals of about one to two weeks. Cobia are frequently parasitized by nematodes, trematodes, cestodes, copepods and acanthocephalans.

Read more about this topic:  Cobia

Famous quotes containing the words life and/or history:

    What, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps most of all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life and the calculations of public life.
    Joseph Epstein (b. 1937)

    All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)