Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 48(3): 257-260, doi: 10.3750/AIEP/02342

Utility of otolith weight to estimate age of Labeo bata (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) inhabiting the Ganga River

M.A. Khan, A. Nazir, U.Z. Banday

Corresponding author: M.A. Khan

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Khan M, Nazir A, Banday U (2018) Utility of otolith weight to estimate age of Labeo bata (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) inhabiting the Ganga River. Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 48(3): 257-260. https://doi.org/10.3750/AIEP/02342

Abstract

Fish age estimation is essential for stock assessment, population dynamics, and fisheries management. The presently reported study was conducted to evaluate the relation between otolith weight and observed age in Labeo bata (Hamilton, 1822) inhabiting the Ganga River. A total of 187 L. bata specimens were collected from Narora site of the Ganga River. Linear regression analysis was applied between otolith weight and observed age to predict the age of fish from the otolith weight. The relation between otolith weight and observed age was significant for L. bata. The otolith weight increased with the fish age. Discriminant function analysis revealed 96.3% of the predicted ages were correctly classified to their observed ages. Thus, it can be inferred that the relation between otolith weight and fish age can provide an additional method of age estimation in L. bata.

Keywords

age estimation, otolith weight, predicted age, Labeo bata, Ganga River