Abstract

Ribbonfish, Lepturacanthus savala is one of the important fish caught off the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, India. The reproductive biology of this fish was studied from February 2012 to March 2013. The study showed that L. savala exhibited two spawning peaks annually along the Ratnagiri coast from March to May and October to December. GSI showed wide variations between sexes and it was higher for female throughout the sampling period. Higher GSI for females during March (3.7448) and November (3.9850) and for males, during April (1.3277) and November (1.4590), also confirmed the two spawning peaks. The overall male: female ratio in the catches was found to be 1:1.3. There was an overall predominance of females in all the months during the present study. The fecundity of L. savala ranged from 1,421 to 25,535 eggs with an average of 12757.68 eggs and the fecundity increased with increasing length.