Morphological characteristics, growth and age structure of allochthonous fish pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus in Bara Lake, Croatia

Momotaz Khanom^1,2, Muhammad Abdur Rouf¹, Nazmul Ahsan¹, Noman Siddiqui¹ and Tea Tomljanović^2
1Khulna University, Fisheries and Marine Resource Technology Discipline, School of Life Science, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
²University of Zagreb, Department for Fisheries, Beekeeping, Game management and Special Zoology, Faculty of Agriculture, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Khanom, M., Abdur Rouf, M., Ahsan, N., Siddiqui, N. & Tomljanovic, T. (2020). Morphological characteristics, growth and age structure of allochthonous fish pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus in Bara Lake, Croatia. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 26 (1), 213–222

The allochthonous pumpkin seed, (Lepomis gibbosus, L.1758) is the most abundant species (about half of the total fish abundance) in Bara Lake, Croatia. Pumpkin seeds caught by electro fishing were subjected to the determination of length-weight relationship, length-length relationship, morphometric and meristic characters, age structure and growth performance. The length-weight relationship showed a significant linear relationship (P = 0.00). Similarly, the total and standard length also showed a highly significant linear relationship (P < 0.05).The growth model for the individuals based on length-weight relationship was determined as W = 0.013L3.14. Three age groups were observed (1 + to 3 + ) in the age structure among which more than 60% of the fish belonged to the 2 + groups. The asymptotic length (L∞) found in the present study was smaller (8.45cm) than those reported from other European countries. The estimated value of growth coefficient was 0.723 and overall growth performance, ǿ was 1.71derived using Von Bertalanffy growth parameters. The pumpkinseed population in the present study was characterized by higher growth and smaller age structure compared with other European pumpkinseed populations suggesting the recent invasion of pumpkinseed population in Bara Lake.

Keywords: pumpkinseed; age structure; growth coefficient; Bara Lake; Croatia
Abbreviations: TL – Total length; SL – Standard length; HL – Head length; PDL – Post dorsal length; PrDL – Pre-dorsal length; PrPL – Pre-pectoral length; PrPlL – Pre-pelvic length; PrAL – Pre-anal length; DHL – Dorsal head length; HW – Head width; HH – Head height; ED – Eye diameter; SnL – Snout length; POL – Post-orbital length; IOW – Inter orbital width; VMO – Vertical mouth; opening; HMO – Horizontal mouth opening; MA – Mouth area; S- Scale radius; L1 – Length at age 1 + ; L2 – Length at age 2 + ; L3 – Length at age 3 +

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