• Question: How many offspring on average does the species have each year?

    Asked by ia10 to Abyssal Grenadier, Baltic clam, Brachiopod, Common starfish, Naval Shipworm, Orkney vole, Scottish Crossbill, Snake Pipefish, Twisted-wing fly on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Baltic Clam

      Baltic Clam answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Female Baltic clams can have between 10,000 and 50,000 eggs each, and in some places scientists have counted up to 300,000 juveniles per metre squared!

    • Photo: Naval Shipworm

      Naval Shipworm answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Hi! Naval shipworms have thousands of possible offspring, but the process of reproduction is not very efficient! They release their eggs and sperm into the water at a set time of year and hope for the best – this means that lots of young naval shipworms don’t find a good place to live. We are not good parents!

    • Photo: Abyssal Grenadier

      Abyssal Grenadier answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      We don’t know exactly how many offspring the abyssal grenadier has every year! But like other fish they lay 1000s of eggs and unfortunately the majority of these will not survive to become adults.

      What is cool about our eggs though is that they float! Most fish eggs do not float and they often stay attached to rocks for protection but ours float up into the ocean currents to be carried all around the world!

    • Photo: Scottish Crossbill

      Scottish Crossbill answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Four or five

    • Photo: Snake Pipefish

      Snake Pipefish answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      In the snake pipefish, oceanic males seem to be bale to breed at colder temperature compared to the males that live closer to shore. This means that they are able to mate earlier in the year and more times each year. This is guess, but I’d say a male that manages to breed with 3 females can probably brood between 400 and 500 embryos. As for the females, the main limitation is finding males to mate with because they generally produce more eggs than males can care for.

    • Photo: Terebratulina Retusa

      Terebratulina Retusa answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      I spawn like a mollusc, so millions…

    • Photo: Common Starfish

      Common Starfish answered on 13 Nov 2017:

      Each starfish will release millions of eggs or sperm into the sea during the Spring and early Summer. So in a year, an individual starfish could in theory have millions of offspring, but most of the offspring end up being food for other animals before they grow up to be a full-sized starfish!

    • Photo: Twisted-wing Fly

      Twisted-wing Fly answered on 21 Nov 2017:

      If the twisted wing fly is small they produce about 1,000. When they are large they can produce about 800,000.

Comments