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In this species, group spawning by TP males (see next paragraph) was observed. There also were TP males with territories. Ten to twenty TP males follow a female that came to the spawning site. The brownish fish in the picture is a female. A group of fish rush up in the water column and spawn. At low tape speed, you can see about five TP males swimming upward with a single female. Some males were quite late in joining the rush. The group goes up again. It is such a dynamic view as the fish go up by several meters! At low tape speed, you can see that the female is the one that goes up first. The TP males are following her. Some males fail to follow the female and are left behind. The spawning rush is so quick that, without examining it at low speed, it is almost impossible to tell how many fish are in a group.

TP males are males that are more brightly colored than females. There is another type of males, which is smaller than TP males and has coloration similar to that of females. The latter type of males is called initial-phase (IP) males. Existing reports state that parrotfishes spawn around the time of high tides. At Iriomote, however, they spawn most actively between 7 and 8 o¡Çclock in the morning. (translated by Asoh)

(Data No.momo060212sr01b)

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