Do muskie guard their eggs or fry?
Not for a second. Muskie are broadcast spawners: eggs are scattered over the bottom and both parents leave immediately, investing everything in egg numbers — a large female carries on the order of 100,000–250,000 eggs — and nothing in care. The strategy is a bet that a handful of the tens of thousands survive the gauntlet of low oxygen over decomposing bottoms, egg predators, and, most dangerously, earlier-hatched pike fry. Contrast the bass model of guarded nests and you understand a core muskie fact: recruitment is wildly variable year to year, and one or two strong year-classes can carry a fishery for a decade.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Spawning
Same topic, other species
- Why do male crappie turn almost black in spring? — Crappie
- Do largemouth and smallmouth hybridize in the wild? — Largemouth Bass
- What exactly is the perch egg ribbon? — Yellow Perch
- Do pike guard their eggs or young? — Northern Pike
- What water temperature do smallmouth spawn at? — Smallmouth Bass
- When and where does each trout species spawn? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Do walleye guard a nest like bass do? — Walleye