Age and Growth of the Bulgarian Minnow, Phoxinus strandjae (Drensky, 1926) (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) Living in Melen River Basin (Düzce, Turkey)

Year 2022, , 41 - 49, 04.04.2022

İlkay Altınışık Deniz Yağlıoğlu

https://doi.org/10.28978/nesciences.1098664

Abstract

This study aims to present the growth parameters of Endangered (EN) (IUCN Redlist). Phoxinus strandjae which until very recently has been believed to be existing only in a very limited area around Turkey’s Thrace region and in Bulgaria (in Europa continent). At the same time, this study is the first to be conducted on an Asian continent population. The study was performed on 159 individuals of P. strandjae species obtained during fauna follow-up project conducted in October, 2015 in Kucuk Melen creek in Melen River basin. The examined samples include 55 (34.59%) female and 104 (65.41%) male specimens. Female to male ratio was found as 1:1.89 among 159 specimens. As a result of examining otolith and scale readings of individuals, the age distributions were determined between 0 to 3 for females and 0 to 4 for males. The lengths of females examined within the study was determined as 78.16 mm max., while of the males was determined 90.00 mm in male; the maximum weights for females and males were 5.54 g and 7.78 g, respectively. The length-weight relationship for female and male individuals of P. strandjae were W=0.00786×L3.1689 and W=0.0083×L3.1339, respectively. The longitudinal growing parameters calculated according to von Bertalanffy formulation for female and male individuals, and asymptote value for female individuals (L∞) was calculated as 17.509 cm, Brody’s growth coefficient (K) as 0.1191 year-1, hypotheticage of fish before hatching (t0) as –1.61512; while the same values for male were calculated as L∞=18.356 cm, K=0.1102 year-1, t0= –1.63994 year and for all populations as L∞=17.642 cm, K=0.1179 year–1, t0=–1.5942 year. This is the first study performed about age and growth parameters of P. strandjae on Anatolia population. At the end of the study, it was found that Bulgarian minnow (P. strandjae) in Melen River basin demonstrating positive allometric growth.

Keywords

Phoxinus strandjae, Bulgarian minnow, Age, Growth parameters, Melen River basin.

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