Reproductive biology of the mudskippersBoleophthalmus boddartiandPeriophthalmus novemradiatusin the Indian Sundarbans

Abstract

Reproductive biology of mudskippersBoleophthalmus boddartiandPeriophthalmus novemradiatusare investigated along the mudflats of the Indian Sundarbans. We investigated a total of 794 sampes for both male and femaleBoleophthalmus boddartiandPeriophthalmus novemradiatusfish species to explore properties such as the size-at-50% maturity, fecundity, spawning, gona-dosomatic and hepatosomatic indices along with the characterization of the macroscopic and histological attributes of the female gonads. Our work reports for the first time the weight-length relationships for these fish species in the Sundarbans region depicting a negative allometric growth pattern. The size-at-50% maturity which is often a crucial parameter for stock and reserve management is found for the female and maleBoleophthalmus boddartias 10.2 cm and 9.9 cm respectively, whereas, for thePeriophthalmus novemradiatus, the same were 4.0 cm and 4.4 cm, respectively. Fully matured femaleBoleophthalmus boddartiwere found to be multiple spawners in comparison toPeriophthalmus novemradiatuswith monthly variation of Le Cren’s relative condition ≤1, indicating good physiological conditions of the fish. The relationships between batch fecundity (F), body weight (i.e., BW, gm) and total length (i.e., TL, cm) were Log10F = 1.12 Log10BW + 2.41 and Log10F = 1.93 Log10TL + 1.82, respectively forBoleoph-thalmus boddartiand for thePeriophthalmus novemradiatus, it was Log10F = 2.15 Log10BW + 2.57 and Log10F = 5.43 Log10TL - 0.81. The reproductive parameters estimated in this study are important information for studying population dynamics and stock assessments of these mudskippers in the Indian Sundarbans and will contribute to the management, conservation and prediction of environmental changes as these mudskippers are often studied as bio-indicators for climate-change effects.