Judging from the external structure of their eggs, exocoetid fishes have been generally believed to spawn in coastal regions which are abundant in seaweeds. Attempts by the present author to collect eggs of
Cypselurus opisthopus hiraii, in a spawning ground of the species in late June, 1969, however, gave rather unexpected results.
Four scrubbing-brushes, 5cm in diameter and 18cm long, were tied to a rope at different intervals so that these brushes might be located at the 0, 1, 5 and 10m layer above the bottom when the rope is set vertically by a float and weighted in the sea. Twentytwo sets of collectors were distributed in the spawning ground, Nakamura Bay, Oki Islands, so as to cover both the rocky and the sandy bottoms.
Much less eggs were collected in the region of rocky bottom than in the sandy bottom, and almost no eggs were found on seaweeds. A larger part of the eggs were obtained by collectors near the bottom and only few eggs were collected at 5-10m layers above the bottom. An examination on the developmental stages of the embryos showed that most of these eggs were 7-8 hours after fertilization, in other words, they were spawned on the previous midnight. Unfertilized eggs also were numerous.
It appears that the eggs found on these collectors were not spawned directly on to them, but were previously spawned on the sandy bottom and then were gathered by the sweepings of the collectors.
The above mentioned facts seem to indicate that the flying fish scarcely spawn on seaweeds or in the rocky region, but they mainly spawn on the sandy bottom.
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