Hatching time in spherical,pelagic, marine fish eggs in response to temperature and egg size

Synopsis The relationship between egg diameter ((, mm), temperature (T, °C) and egg development time to hatching (D, in days) was established for approximately spherical, pelagic marine fish eggs as log₁₀D = 7.10 + 0.608 log₁₀ – 4.09 log₁₀ (T + 26), which explains 82% of the variance of a data set of 140 cases, covering 84 species of teleost fishes, for temperatures from 2.8 to 29.5° C and eggs of 0.6 to 3.4 mm diameter.From this relationship it appears that temperature has 4.7 times as much effect on development time as egg diameter when all variables are expressed in standard deviation units. A discussion of these and related factors is given.ICLARM Contribution No. 308.