Length-Weight Relationship of Ohrid Trout, Salmo letnica (Karaman, 1924), Inhabiting Transboundary Ohrid Lake (Albania-Macedonia)

Abstract

Length-weight and total length-standard length, relationships were derived for Ohrid trout, Salmo letnica (Karaman), inhabiting the ancient Ohrid Lake, at the transboundary area shared between Albania and Macedonia. Sampling was done between January-December of 2014 using different approaches including fishing gears and direct sampling at the hatcheries in two localities, Lin and Zagorҫan. The relationships between lengths were all significantly linear (r 2 from 0.975 to 0.855) and there are significant differences of r 2 at the localities Zagorҫan to Hudënisht. The Ohrid trout through different authors has been considered like polymorph species regarding the taxonomical and ecological features: Salmo letnica typicus, Salmo letnica balcanicus, Salmo letnica lumi and Salmo letnica aestivalis. According many authors four forms of Ohrid trout can be distinguished with different place, time and substrate for spawning. This species, in the conditions that are present in the lake, reaches weight of 1 kg in the seventh year of its life with an average total body length of 420-460 mm, while the maturity among males occurs in the 4 th year and 5 th for the females. Further to that the length-weight approach was developed to see different patterns in different supposed localities.