Allometric growth and sperm competition in fishes

The allometric relationship between body mass and gonad mass in males of 23 fish species from 11 families was examined. There was no evidence of a single allometry for all fishes. A cross species analysis suggested a scaling coefficient of 1·04, which was significantly different from a previous study that reported a scaling coefficient of 0·904. A within species analysis generated scaling coefficients from 0·68 to 3·90. Furthermore, for those species characterized by alternative mating tactics, there was no correlation between the scaling coefficients of bourgeois‐type males and parasitic‐type males. These results are discussed in the context of the gonado‐somatic index and its use in testing sperm competition theory.