Relationships between otolith size and fish size in some mesopelagic and bathypelagic species from the Mediterranean Sea (Strait of Messina, Italy)

Abstract

SUMMARY: The length-weight relationships and the regressions between otolith size (length and width) and fish length of some mesopelagic and bathypelagic fishes living in the central Mediterranean Sea were provided. Images and morphological description of otoliths (sagittae) from 16 species belonging to the families of Gonostomatidae (1), Microstomatidae (2), Myctophidae (8), Phosichthyidae (2), Sternoptychidae (2) and Stomiidae (1) were given. The length-weight relationship showed an isometric growth in 13 species. No differences between right and left otolith sizes were detected by t-test, so a single linear regression was plotted against standard length (SL) for otolith length (OL) and otolith width (OW). Data fitted well to the regression model for both OL and OW to SL, for each species (R 2 >0.8). These relationships offer a helpful tool in feeding studies and also provide support to palaeontologists in their research on fish fossils.Keywords: mesopelagic fishes, bathypelagic fishes, otolith, fish-otolith sizes, length-weight relationship, Mediterranean Sea. RESUMEN: Relaciones entre talla del otolito y talla del pez en algunos peces mesopelágicos y batipelá-gicos del Mediterráneo (estrecho de Messina, Italia). -En este trabajo se presentan las relaciones talla-peso y las regresiones entre la talla del otolito (longitud y anchura) y la talla del pez (SL) para algunos peces meso y batipelágicos que viven en el Mediterráneo central. Se incluyen imágenes y descripciones morfológicas de los otolitos (sagittae) de 16 especies de las familias Gonostomatidae (1), Microstomatidae (2), Myctophidae (8), Phosichthyidae (2), Sternoptychidae (2) y Stomiidae (1). La relación talla-peso muestra un crecimiento isométrico en 13 especies. No se encontraron diferencias relevantes (t-test) entre la talla del otolito derecho e izquierdo, por lo que se representó una sola regresión lineal entre la longitud estándar y los siguientes parámetros: longitud de otolite (OL) y la anchura (OW). Los datos se ajustaron bien al modelo de regresión lineal para OL y OW, para todas las especies (R 2 >0.8). Las relaciones obtenidas puede ser utilizadas como instrumento en estudios de alimentación y para sustentar estudios de paleontología sobre peces fósiles.Palabras clave: peces mesopelágicos, peces batipelágicos, otolito, pez-otolito, relación talla-peso, Mediterráneo. 2010, 605-612, Barcelona (Spain) Scientia Marina74(3) September

Relationships between Fish and Otolith Size of the Blackspot Snapper <i>Lutjanus ehrenbergii</i> (Peters, 1869) Collected from the Coast of Muscat City, Sea of Oman

“…The relationship between otolith length width and fish body proportions is related to the growth rate of the fish (Mugiya and Tanaka, 1992) and these relationship became curvilinear in some larval or juvenile fishes (West and Larkin, 1987), such curvilinearity was observed in the present study, but not in the previous similar studies on fishes from Oman (Al-Mamry et al, 2010;Jawad et al, 2011a;Jawad and Al-Mamry, 2012). Harvey et al (2000), Waessle et al (2003) and Battaglia et al (2010) have suggested that there is a possibility of getting error in the final results of the relationship between otolith dimensions and fish size due to changes in this relationship during the life history of the fish and as the fish length changes (Frost and Lowry, 1981;Hare and Cowen, 1995).…”

“…It is a common in the fisheries studies to use otolith width and height as variables for valuing fish size (Battaglia et al, 2010;. The present study puts forward the equations based on otolith length and width dimensions in relation to fish total, standard and head length of the blackspot snapper L. ehrenbergii from the Omani waters for the first time.…”

“…The strongly correlated relationship of head length and total length of the fish and otolith width was inspected and the study resolved that these equations can be used to calculate the prey size for trophic dynamics studies. Battaglia et al (2010) have suggested that these equations are suitable within the size ranges used in this study for precise estimations. On the other hand, Campana and Casselman (1993), Reichenbacher et al (2009), Hare and Cowen (1995) have gave a set of limitations in predicting the prey size of even the same species using the regression equations.…”

“…The predator consumption rates, biomass of the prey consumed, and selectivity of a predator towards a specific size class of prey are sets of biological and ecological information that usually used in the feeding studies. In getting such information, the original size of the ingested prey needs to be estimated (Granadeiro and Silva, 2000;Watanabe et al, 2004;Battaglia et al, 2010). Otolith measurements are usually used to rebuild the prey body size by linking the correlation between otolith length and fish size (Templemann and Squires, 1956;Echeveria, 1987;Panfili et al, 2002).…”

Morphological and Biometrical Characteristics on Otolith of Barbus tauricus Kessler, 1877 on Light and Scanning Electron Microscope

“…There are many studies that determine the otolith biometry and relationships between fish size (Waessle et al, 2003;Gümüs & Kurt, 2009;Battaglia et al, 2010;Keskin;Sadighzadeh et al, 2014). Sexual differences in relationships between otolith biometry and fish size were identified in this study, which have been reported for many species (Vallisneri et al, 2008;Bostanci et al, 2012).…”