Population biological traits of Periophthalmus chrysospilos Bleeker, 1853 in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta

Abstract

Periophthalmus chrysospilos is an amphibious fish living in mudflats from eastern India to Indonesia, including the Vietnamese Mekong Delta. Population biological traits play an important role in fishery assessment, but understanding is limited for this species. In total 1,031 specimens were caught in two regions covering four provinces, including the TVST (Duyen Hai, Tra Vinh and Tran De, Soc Trang) and BLCM (Dong Hai, Bac Lieu and Dam Doi, Ca Mau). Results found that the sex ratio was close to 1:1. The parameters of the von Bertalanffy in TVST were L∞ = 12.8 cm, K = 0.41 yr−1, t0 = −0.10 yr and in BLCM were 12.7 cm, 0.38 yr−1 and −0.08 yr, respectively. Although the growth coefficient (Φ′) in BLCM (1.79), was lower than that in TVST (1.83), the species shared a similar size at first capture (7.9 cm in TVST and 7.9 cm in BLCM). The species suffered from heavy pressure of fishing in TVST as fishing mortality in TVST (2.32 yr−1) was higher than that in BLCM (1.38 yr−1), leading to the higher total mortality (Z = 3.60 yr−1) in TVST compared to BLCM (Z = 2.59 yr−1). By contrast, the species showed similar natural mortality over both sites (1.20 yr−1 in TVST and 1.22 yr−1 in BLCM). The Periophthalmus chrysospilos population was reasonably exploited because E values (0.64 in TVST and 0.53 in BLCM) were lower than E10 (0.706 in BTTV and 0.705 in STBL). Nonetheless, to avoid the consequences of overfishing, some sustainable fisheries practices should be implemented, such as protecting mangrove forests, restricting fishing during the recruitment period, using appropriate fishing tools and increasing mesh size.

Life‐history traits of a tropical bagrid catfish, Mystus mysticetus Roberts, 1992, caught from the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

“…Although located in the Mekong Delta, in each ecological region, fish had different growth rates (Dinh, Nguyen, Nguyen, et al, 2022 ). Indeed, the growth parameter ( K ) of M. mysticetus at CRCT (0.51/year) was higher than at LPST (0.48/year), whereas the opposite case was found for maximum life with 5.88 years at CRCT and 6.25 years at LPST.…”

“…Like M. mysticetus , G. sparsipapillus had an equivalent maximum length between these two regions. Some other fish species also displayed a variation in population parameters regarding ecological regions, for example, Periophthalmus chrysospilos exhibited a better adaptation to areas with low salinity (Ben Tre and Tra Vinh) than to areas with higher salinity (Soc Trang and Bac Lieu) (Dinh, Nguyen, Nguyen, et al, 2022 ). Meanwhile, Acentrogobius viridipunctatus displayed a higher growth coefficient in the high salinity areas (Bac Lieu and Ca Mau) (Dinh, Nguyen, Truong, & Nguyen, 2022 ).…”

Burrow behaviour, structure and utilization of the amphibious mudskipper Periophthalmus chrysospilos Bleeker, 1853 in the Mekong Delta

“…in the Mekong Delta (MD) ( Dinh et al, 2021a ), and shows temporal variation in some morphometrics and body condition factors ( Le et al, 2021 , Dinh et al, 2022c ). This fish spawns all year round but focuses mainly on the wet season, from July to October, with a batch fecundity of 23,000 eggs ( Dinh et al, 2022a ), and its population parameters show a spatial change in MD ( Dinh et al, 2022b ). Some mudskippers in MD use burrows as a place for forging, protecting from predators, and egg releasing and hatching, but there is no data on Ps.…”