Out-of-Season Spawning of Sunfish Lepomis spp.

in the Laboratory

CHARLES C. MISCHKE' AND JOSEPH E. MORRIS

Copyright hy the American Fisheries Society 1997



Female bluegills

began spawning within 3 months of the initiation

of the water temperature and photoperiod

regimes, and several females spawned more than

once (up to five times per female) over a 5-month

period.



http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=61279&fpart=1

Neff study ppg 283.

Repeat spawning

To ascertain if repeat spawners showed consistency in their nest
position, in the years 1988–1990, 1993 and 2002 a total of 901
parentals were tagged using Floy brand T-tags inserted into the
muscle directly below the dorsal fin on the left side of the body.
The study site was monitored for the duration of the spawning
season and the nest position of repeat spawners was recorded. In
most cases in which males spawned a second time in a breeding
season they were not remeasured. Thus, while we had repeat
measures of nest position, we did not have a second estimate of egg
score, male length, condition or ear tab area.

pg. 384

Of the 901 tagged males, 119 (13%) nested a second
time during a single breeding season (Table 3). Seven of
115 males (6%) that nested colonially in their first
breeding attempt switched to nest solitarily in their second
breeding attempt, and none of the 4 males (0%) that
nested solitarily in their first breeding attempt switched to
nest colonially.

Neff link

http://publish.uwo.ca/%7Ebneff/papers/Solitary_nesting_in_bluegill.pdf


I believe both male and female BG can easily spawn more than once a in a spawning season. I have looked and not found a good answer as to why some would and others not. I suspect their are many factors in addition to water temperature and photoperiod
that go into BG spawning times and duration. When I ask Bill about female BG spawning more than once in a year he reminded me that many fish carry eggs in several stages of development at the same time ( fractional spawners). Any thoughts?


Your BG is another data point on the matter. One point of note from the Neff article which was from Canada is that all of the females did not spawn at the same time (some spawned later with the males on their second spawn) or these females spawned more than once. If BG females spawn based on a certain amount of time elapsing from the onset of the correct water temperature and photoperiod why would some wait a month later than that to spawn.