Data on growth during very early life stages of European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.)

The European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) displays female-biased sexual size dimorphism early in development. To generate this dataset, we produced an experimental population by artificial fertilization and followed a rearing-temperature protocol (~16 °C from hatching to 112 days post-hatching, dph; ~20 °C from 117 to 358 dph) targeting a roughly balanced sex ratio. The fish were tagged with microchips between 61 and 96 dph in five tagging trials of 50 fish each; individual standard length (SL) was recorded through repeated biometric measurements performed between 83 to 110 dph via image analyses. Body weight (BW) was modelled using the traits measured on the digital pictures (i.e. SL, area, height, perimeter and volume). At 117 dph, the fish were tagged with microtags and regularly measured for SL and BW until 335 dph. The experiment ended at 358 dph with the sexing of the fish. The present datasets include the sex and the repeated biometric measurements of body weight, standard length and daily growth coefficient (DGC) of the animals between 83 to 335 dph.