Data from: Batch spawning facilitates transfer of an essential nutrient from diet to eggs in a marine fish

Fatty acid composition of eggs affects development, growth, and ecological
performance of fish embryos and larvae, with potential consequences for
recruitment success. Essential fatty acids in eggs derive from the
maternal diet, and the time between ingestion and deposition in eggs is
ecologically important but unknown. We examined the dynamics of diet-egg
transfer of arachidonic acid (ARA) in the batch-spawning fish, red drum
(Sciaenops ocellatus), by measuring ARA concentrations in eggs after a
single diet shift and during a period of irregular variations in diet. ARA
concentrations in eggs changed within 2-16 days of a diet shift. The rate
of change was proportional to the magnitude of the shift, with no evidence
of equilibration. These results are not consistent with eggs being
assembled entirely from accumulated body stores. The immediate source of
ARA in eggs appears to be the recent diet. We propose that batch spawning
produces rapid diet-egg transfer of ARA because it removes large amounts
of fatty acids from the body and prevents equilibration. The immediacy of
the diet-egg connection suggests that spawning migration combined with
short-interval batch spawning may have evolved to take advantage of
nutrients critical for offspring survival that are available at the
spawning site.