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

Noman Siddiqui, Muhammad Abdur Rouf, Tea Tomljanović, Nazmul Ahsan, Momotaz Khanom

Abstract: 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 lengthweight 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: age structure; Bara Lake; Croatia; growth coefficient; pumpkinseed

Date published: 2020-02-27