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Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

DOI

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Abstract

The age composition, growth parameters, spawning season, sex ratio, length at first sexual maturity and fecundity of tub gurnard (Chelidonichthys lucerna) caught from the Bay of İskenderun in the eastern Mediterranean Sea were investigated. Females and males made up 58.2% and 41.8%, respectively, of the particular population of the species. The total length of females ranged from 8.0 cm to 30.3 cm, and of males from 8.3 cm to 21.2 cm. The length (L) - weight (W) relationships for males and females were estimated as W = 0.0089*L^{3.01} and W = 0.0095*L^{2.99}, respectively. The age data derived from otolith readings were used to estimate the growth parameters of the von Bertalanffy equation. The estimated parameters were: L\infity = 45.0 cm, K = 0.221 and t_o = -0.581. The maximum age was 4 for females and 3 for males. The 1-year age group was dominant in both females and males. Males matured at a total length of 18 cm, while females matured at 20 cm. The monthly values of the gonadosomatic index indicated that spawning occurred mainly between December and May. The fecundity (F) - length relationship was logF = -2.512 + 5.58logL (r = 0.94).

Keywords

Bay of İskenderun, eastern Mediterranean, tub gurnard, age, growth, reproduction

First Page

289

Last Page

295

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