• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.420-425
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• 2018

We characterized egg development and investigated the effects of temperature on embryonic development time, in the convict cichlid Amatitlania nigrofasciata. Fertilized eggs of this species have an ovoid shape (horizontal axis, $1.56{\pm}0.02mm$; vertical axis, $1.26{\pm}0.04mm$) and smooth translucent chorion surrounded by a layer of mucous secretion. At $27{\pm}0.5^{\circ}C$, the first cleavage, blastula, gastrula and 16-somite stages of A. nigrofasciata eggs began at 1.5, 4.83, 14 and 40 hours after fertilization, respectively. We measured the development rate of embryos at $12-33^{\circ}C$ and found that the time period from fertilization to hatching was 94 hours at $24^{\circ}C$, 64 hours at $27^{\circ}C$ and 50 hours at $30^{\circ}C$. At temperatures of $12-21^{\circ}C$, all fertilized eggs died before hatching and those incubated at $33^{\circ}C$ died immediately after hatching.