Reproductive biology of the tub gurnard Trigla lucerna (linnaeus, 1758), in the Libyan eastern coast of Mediterranean Sea.

The reproductive biology of Trigla lucerna, (family: Triglidae) inhabiting Libyan eastern coast was studied during the period from January to December 2007. There were monthly variation in sex ratio, and a tendency for more females (731 fish, 52.2%) than males (669 fish, 47.8%) for the collected population. Overall sex ratio was 1: 1.09 for males to females. The male of Trigla lucerna attained its first maturity at the total length of 13.9 cm, while the first sexual maturity of female was attained at 15.3 cm. The gonado-somatic indices of males were lower than that of females. Males and females have a definite breeding season which extends from January till March. An increase in oocyte diameter was evident in November (with an average of 225 μ) and this increase continued in the following months till March, with an average value of 498μ. The absolute fecunncldity ranged from 678 to 10047 eggs for fish length ranging from 13.5 to 22.6 cm. Also, the fecundity increased from 755 to 10055 eggs with the increase of weight from 16.7 to 108.2 g.