To evaluate the females’ reproductive index at the time of collection, the removed eggs were weighed on a digital precision balance (0.001 g), and 3 g of collected sample were fixed in 4% formalin solution and subsequently counted, to estimate relative fecundity(number of eggs per gram of female body weight) and absolute fecundity (total number of eggs per spawning),as adapted from El-Sayed et al. (2005).