page_title: Spicara maena
section_title: Biology
hierarchical_section_title: Spicara maena / Biology
caption_attribution_description: Blotched picarel (Spicara maena)
context_page_description: Spicara maena, the blotched picarel, is a species of ray-finned fish native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. The male grows to a maximum length of about 25 cm, and the female reaches 21 cm. This fish is fished commercially in some areas.
  Genetic studies have confirmed that Spicara flexuosa is a separate species, not a synonym for Spicara maena
context_section_description: Spicara maena is a gregarious fish that moves in schools and feeds on small benthic invertebrates  and  zooplankton. It is a protogynous hermaphrodite, starting life as a female and later changing into a male. In a study in the Gulf of İzmir in the Aegean Sea by Soykan and colleagues it was found that there are almost five times as many females as males and that the change of sex on average takes place within the length range 14.5 to 15 cm (5.7 to 5.9 in) and that all fish longer than 18 cm (7.1 in) are male. A study off the eastern central coast of the Adriatic Sea by Dulčić and colleagues found that the sex conversion on average happened between 17.5 and 18 cm (6.9 and 7.1 in) and that any fish longer than 19.8 cm (7.8 in) were male. The females become mature at the age of two years and spawning takes place between March and June in the Aegean, and between August and October further west in the Mediterranean. The male digs a hollow on the seabed and the female lays eggs with a sticky surface in this nest.
caption: Several Spicara maena
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