Assessing age, growth, and reproduction of Alburnus mossulensis and Acanthobrama marmid (Cyprinidae) populations in Karakaya Dam Lake (Turkey)

Abstract

IntroductionThe freshwater fishes Alburnus mossulensis (Heckel, 1843) and Acanthobrama marmid (Heckel, 1843) are cyprinid fish found in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Turkey and their adjacent basins in Iran (Kuru, 1978;Coad, 2010). The distribution of A. mossulensis in Asia extends from the Tigris-Euphrates basin to the very upper parts of the delta of the Kor, Mand, and Kul rivers in Iran (Bogutskaya, 1997). A. marmid is present in the Tigris, Euphrates, and Orontes river systems, the Berdan River, and Seyhan Dam Lake (www.fishbase.org).Several studies conducted at different localities in Turkey have investigated the growth and reproduction characteristics of A.

Select biological characteristics of the mossul bleak Alburnus mossulensis Heckel, 1843(Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae) in the Ataturk Dam Lake, Turkey

“…The condition factor of the same species in the Gamasiab River was between 0.20 to 2.51 for females and 0.32 to 2.01 for males (Mousavi-Sabet et al, 2013). Average condition factors in specimens in Karakaya Dam Lake were found to be 0.90 ±0.1 for females and 0.84 ± 0.11 for males (Uckun and Gokce, 2014). The condition factor of A. mossulensis species shows significant similarities compared to other species, such as Alburnus esherichii (Cetinkaya et al, 2015) and A. alburnus (Stavrescu-Bedivan et al, 2017).…”

“…In two separate studies from the Karasu River, the fork lengths were in the range 85-185 mm and 94-195 mm (Turkmen and Akyurt, 2000;Yildirim et al, 2003), while the total lengths of individual specimens in Ataturk Dam Lake were 83-242 mm (Basusta and Cicek, 2006). Fork lengths of the species reported in Iran were 36-93 mm (Esmaeili and Ebrahimi, 2006) and the total lengths reported from Gamasiab River were 70-155 mm (Mousavi-Sabet et al, 2013) while the values in Karakaya Dam Lake were found to be between 108-190 mm (Uckun and Gokce, 2014). The difference in the size range in different localities is attributed to the changes in the biotic and abiotic factors between the environments and fishing periods (Emmrich et al, 2014).…”

“…The weight of individual specimens in Gamasiab River were between 6.3-54.6 g (Mousavi-Sabet et al, 2013). Individual specimens in Karakaya Dam Lake have been identified to vary in weight between 16.87-56.57 g (Uckun and Gokce, 2014).…”

“…This value in the Karasu River however, was at its highest level between March and May; it declined in June because of spawning times and was lowest in December (Turkmen and Akyurt, 2000). In the Gamasiab River it was highest in May and lowest in August (Mousavi-Sabet et al, 2013); in the Karakay Dam Lake it was identified to be highest in May and lowest in September (Uckun and Gokce, 2014).…”

“…This fish also has the potential to be used as a source of fish feed in aquaculture. Several studies have been done on the biology of A. mossulensis in Iraq (Barak, 1978;Jawad, 2004), Iran (Esmaeili and Ebrahimi, 2006;Parsa et al, 2011;Mousavi-Sabet et al, 2013) and Turkey (Ergene, 1993;Ozdemir et al, 1993;Turkmen and Akyurt, 2000;Yıldırım et al, 2003;Basusta and Cicek, 2006;Yildirim et al, 2007;Uckun and Gokce, 2014). However, there is not much documentation on the biological characteristics of this species in the Atatürk Dam Lake.…”