As a rule, cartilaginous fish are less prolific than other fish
owing to their being viviparous; and their young by reason of their
size have a better chance of escaping destruction.
The so-called needle-fish (or pipe-fish) is late in spawning,
and the greater portion of them are burst asunder by the eggs before
spawning; and the eggs are not so many in number as large in size. The
young fish cluster round the parent like so many young spiders, for
the fish spawns on to herself; and, if any one touch the young, they
swim away. The atherine spawns by rubbing its belly against the sand.
Tunny fish also burst asunder by reason of their fat. They live
for two years; and the fishermen infer this age from the
circumstance that once when there was a failure of the young tunny
fish for a year there was a failure of the full-grown tunny the next
summer. They are of opinion that the tunny is a fish a year older than
the pelamyd. The tunny and the mackerel pair about the close of the
month of Elaphebolion, and spawn about the commencement of the month
of Hecatombaeon; they deposit their spawn in a sort of bag. The growth
of the young tunny is rapid.
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