The in vivo distribution and fate of 14C-cholesterol injected in prepuberal female prawns, Penaeus japonicus Bate, intact (E+) or deprived of their eyestalks (E−), were investigated. Animals were injected at the beginning of the experiment. Three days later, half of them (24 specimens) supported bilateral eyestalks ablation within a 48 hours period. Four days after the ablation, the ovaries of eyestalkless animals were relatively more developed than those of intact animals as seen by the increase in ovarian weight. The total content 14C-cholesterol and/or its metabolic products (total dpm) in whole animals was not significantly different between the two lots of animals and remained nearly constant throughout the experiment.

Distribution of radioactivity (dpm/mg wet weight of tissue) in carcass, muscle, gut, hepatopancreas,eyes and eyestalks and ovaries from E+ and E− after 192 hours of 14C-cholesterol injection indicate that ovaries presented the highest concentration of label (6 to 40 times higher than other organs) while these differences were not statistically significant between E+ and E−. The study of incorporation of 14C-cholesterol in those organs from E+ and E− independent of their volume, expressed as percentage organ radioactivity/whole animal radioactivity, at different time points, indicate that major accumulation was achieved by the carcass and muscle although radioactivity in the muscle progressively increased in inverse correlation with the decrease observed in the carcass. Hepatopanereas, eyes and eyestalks, gut and ovaries showed small incorporation that was kept constant with time in eyes and guts and significantly decreased in ovaries and hepatopancreas. At 192 hours after 14C-cholesterol injection there was an apparent increase in 14C label retention in ovaries from E− compared to E+ that was not statistically significant.

Results indicate that the ovary is presumably the major site of cholesterol metabolism followed bythe hepatopancreas. Muscle seemingly is the major site for storage of large amounts of cholesteroland/or its metabolites while eyes and gut have negligeable retention. Furthermore, in our experimental conditions, the requirement for cholesterol in different tissues does not vary significantly with eyestalk ablation suggesting that the phenomenon could be independent of ovarian maturation and moulting.

Plasma and pituitary gonadotropin (GtH) levels, and the gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) in differents areas of the brain, were measured using radioimmunoassays during the prespawning and the spawning period in a wild population of roach (Rutilus rutilus). GtH pituitary levels did not vary. On the contrary GtH plasma levels showed variations during the prespawning period and were minimum on the day of arriva1 on the spawning areas, Do. During spawning they increased in ovulated females but also in unovulated animals and returned to low values, 1 month after. During this period GnRH varied inversely in all brain structures and was always negatively correlated with the blood plasma GtH levels. This suggests that all the brain GnRH would be involved in the control of the GtH secretion during spawning. This was not the case during the prespawning period, during which only hypothalamic and pituitary GnRH levels were correlated with GtH. There were also marked variations in the telencephalic GnRH extra hypothalamic GnRH. It is hypothetized that it could be a link between environmental factors and the hypothalamo-pituitary cornplex.

As in the female (Breton et al., 1988), plasma gonadotropin levels (GtH) in male roach were always the lowest the day of aggregation on the spawning areas, eventhough they were elevated 3 daysearlier. The levels increased during spawning and remained at a high level in most of the animalscaptured out of the visible spwaning areas, 3 weeks after the beginning of the spawning activity. During the same period the GnRH contents did not significantly vary in the hypothalamic lobes, the di-met-and myelencephalon. On the contrary there were marked variations in the pituitary gland and the telencephalon in which the GnRH levels were the highest the day of aggregation when GtH plasma levels were the lowest. In these two structures they decreased during spawning in correlation with the increase of the plasma GtH levels. These results are discussed in comparison with those obtained in the female and in relation with the possible endocrine and paracrine roles of the GnRH in these structures and mainly in the telencephalon.

L'ichthyofaune continentale de la Guyane française comprend environ 330 espèces dulçaquicoles. Plusieurs d'entre elles possèdent des caractéristiques biologiques propices à leur élevage. Deux cypriniformes, Myleus rhomboidalis, et Leporinus friderici, trois perciformes, Astronotus ocellatus, Cichla ocellaris et Plagioscion squamosissimus, ainsi que trois siluriformes, Hoplosternum littorale, Brachyplatystoma vaillantii et Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum, sont présentés dans ce texte. Ces espèces peuvent convenir à différents systèmes d'aquaculture.

Jusqu'aux dernières décennies on considérait que la limite de répartition entre sardines et sardinelles se situait aux environs du cap Blanc. Au nord de ce cap, les remontées d'eaux ont lieu toute l'année, la production primaire est forte, mais non la biomasse zooplanctonique, du fait de la rapidité de l'advection. Au sud, les résurgences sont saisonnières, la circulation au-dessus du plateau comprend deux veines opposées. La production secondaire suit rapidement les poussées de phytoplancton, notamment grâce à la superposition de courants opposés entre lesquels des migrations de zooplanctonpermettent un couplage des productions primaires et secondaires. Sardines et sardinelles se nourrissent de particules en suspension, mais les sardines peuvent s'accommoder d'un régime presqu'entièrernent végétal, à la différence des sardinelles. Ceci leur confère un avantage sur les sardinelles dans les régions d'upwellings violents. Durant les années 70's, la pêcherie de sardines s'est déplacée vers le sud, or ces mêmes années, les alizés se sont renforcés sur leur bordure méridionale, conduisant à un renforcement des upwellings le long des côtes mauritanienne et sénégalaise. Ceci a entraîné une modification du biotope, favorable aux sardines. D'autre part les courants, modifiés par diminution de leur composante nord et augmentation de celle portant au sud, pourraient être responsables d'un nouveau mode de dispersion des larves, entraînant davantage de sardines au sud et moins de sardinelles vers le nord.