Reproduction
The spoonhead sculpin is sexually mature at two years of age when it gets to be about 7.0-8.0cm in length. Spawning occurs in the fall when males will go out, find, and defend territories from other males. Once a territory is established the male will drive other males away from his territory, which includes a nest site. Males will select nest sites under rocks. Then they try to attract females with the quality of their territory and have the female lay her eggs and attach them to the undersurface of the rocks in the nest site. Then he drives the females away from the nests after he has fertilized them. Males can sometimes be polygynous but this is usually correlated to the male’s size and to how many eggs he can guard at one time. The male will guard the nest until the eggs hatch, this generally happens 21 days after fertilization. Female fecundity ranges from 280-1200 eggs and is also correlated to female size.
Read more about this topic: Spoonhead Sculpin
Famous quotes containing the word reproduction:
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