Correlation between the length and weight of Arius maculatus off the southwestern coast of Taiwan

Abstract

In this study, Arius maculatus were collected using the samples caught by bottom trawling off the southwestern coast of Taiwan. Length-weight and length-length, fork (FL) , standard (SL) and total (TL) lengths, relationships were determined. The relationships between the lengths were all significantly linear (p<0.01), the b value in the length-weight relationship for this value was significantly lower than 3 in the fall (p<0.01), when the temporal changes were taken into account, indicating that only the sampling time affected the growth pattern of A. maculatus.The growth was isometric in the spring, summer and winter, but it was negative and allometric in the fall.

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

“…Length-length relations showed high linearity with high correlation. The "b" coefficients (i.e., slope of the regression line) of SL-TL (1.15) and FL-TL (1.13) relations were similar to the values obtained for the stock off the coast of Taiwan for SL-TL (1.18) and FL-TL (1.06) (Chu et al 2012). Meanwhile, the coefficient "b" for SL-TL relation of the A. maculatus stock from Peninsular Malaysia was 1.17 (Arshad et al 2008).…”

“…The "b" coefficients of LWRs from this study were significantly higher than 3, indicating positive allometry (i.e., fish become heavier as length increases), and reflecting optimum conditions for growth (Froese 2006) as well as the suitability of habitat conditions (Damchoo et al 2021). Interestingly, the "b" coefficients of LWRs from the marine stocks were lower than 3 (between 2.6 and 2.9) (Arshad et al 2008;Chu et al 2012), which could be explained either by climatic variation or resource competition (Dieb-Magalhães et al 2015).…”

“…Tran et al (2021) reported that, in the Lower Mekong Basin, this fish can grow as large as 40 cm TL. The size (around 25 cm TL) found in fresh-and brackish-water habitats is substantially lower than in stocks from marine environments, such as 29 cm TL off the coast of Malaysia (Arshad et al 2008) and 35 cm TL in Taiwan waters (Chu et al 2012). Length-length relations showed high linearity with high correlation.…”

“…This fish feeds mainly on benthic invertebrates (Angsupanich et al 2005), and plays an important role in the ecosystem; an imbalance in its abundance can trigger a trophic cascade (Froese and Pauly 2021). This fish is targeted for harvest in many countries, where the fisheries operations are mostly in either marine or brackish water environments (Arshad et al 2008;Chu et al 2012;Jumawan et al 2020;Kutsyn et al 2021). There is also a unique inland fishery for this species in Songkhla Lake, the largest natural lake in Thailand.…”