Age and growth estimates from three hard parts of the spotted catfish, Arius maculatus (Actinopterygii: Siluriformes: Ariidae), in Songkhla Lake, Thailand’s largest natural lake

Abstract

The spotted catfish, Arius maculatus (Thunberg, 1792), is a euryhaline fish that is economically important in the Indo-West Pacific. Population dynamics studies and stock assessments of this species have focused on marine stocks, but not those from fresh water. In this study, the age and growth of A. maculatus were, therefore, investigated for the inland stock in Songkhla Lake, Thailand. A total of 213 individuals ranging between 35 and 238 mm TL were used. The length–weight relation indicated positive allometry of this population. Three hard parts (otolith, dorsal- and pectoral-fin spines) were used for aging. The marginal increment ratio confirmed that an annulus was deposited once a year in all three hard parts. All of the samples were aged between 0+ and 6+ years. Verification of age estimates from three readers showed that the otolith was the most suitable part for age estimation. Three growth models (von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, and logistic) were applied in the study. The von Bertalanffy model best described the growth of this fish in Songkhla Lake. The obtained asymptotic length was 290.87 mm TL and the relative growth rate parameter was 0.166 year–1. Our results will be applied as inputs for fish stock assessment models. The obtained growth parameters also can serve as a reference for A. maculatus stocks elsewhere.

Analysis of the 90º and 150º angles for increment counting in otoliths of estuarine catfish

“…Genidens genidens and G. genidens from the CIELC, which makes it possible to determine this species' ages, a fact corroborated by Carvalho et al (2014), Santificetur et al (2017), Azevedo et al (2019), Morais and Azevedo (2021). The use of lapilli otoliths for age estimation in other sea catfish species has also been made by Reis (1986), Cheraghi-Shevi et al (2015), Al-Husaini et al (2021) and Phaeviset et al (2021), andHauser et al (2018) applied this method to freshwater catfishes.…”

“…It has already been observed that, in the lapillus otolith, the narrow opaque zones represent slow growth, while the wide hyaline or translucent zones represent rapid growth. For instance, some researchers have used the lapilli otolith to estimate the age and growth of ariids from different regions, such as Bagre panamensis, from the United States, California (Maldonado-Coyac et al, 2021), Arius maculatus, from Thailand (Phaeviset et al, 2021), and Plicofollis tenuispinis, Netuma bilineata, Netuma thalassina, and Plicofollis dussumieri, from Kuwaiti waters (Al-Husaini et al, 2021). In Brazil, some researchers have studied G. genidens and G. barbus (Reis, 1986;Oliveira and Novelli, 2005;Gibbs et al, 2013;Maciel et al, 2018).…”

Growth, Mortality and Stock Assessment of <i>Squaliobarbus curriculus</i> (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes: Xenocyprididae) from Lanxi Section of Qiantang River, China

“…Estimation of fish growth can provide a valuable understanding of its life history, and can be further used to formulate optimum fishing regulations for sustaining stocks [28]. The von Bertalanffy model was generally considered to be the most reliable candidate model for fish stocks in a mathematical sense [29].…”