Figure 6.

Plasma levels of 17β-estradiol (E₂) (a), progesterone (P) (b), 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) (c) and testosterone (T) (d) of fish fed 0 (control), 2.5 and 5 µg/g food for 28 days (treatment) and of fish fed 0 (control), 2.5 and 5 µg/g food for 28 days and afterwards a standard diet for 146 and 333 days (recovery). Data represent the means ± S.E.M. of duplicate samples. M, male specimens; F, female specimens. *Denote statistically significant differences between treated and control groups and letters indicate differences in the control group at distinct sampling times, as determined by one-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc tests (a–d) or Kruskal Wallis followed by Mann Whitney tests (e).