Some morphometric features of congeneric pipefish species (Syngnathus abaster Risso 1826, Syngnathus acus Linnaeus, 1758) distributed in Lake Bafa (Turkey)

Abstract

The study was carried out between November 2014 and March 2016 to determine certain morphometric characteristics of two pipefish species occurring in Lake Bafa, Syngnathus abaster and Syngnathus acus. A total of 211 pipefish were captured during the sampling, including 77 individuals of S. abaster (♀: 25; ♂: 44; immature: 8) and 134 individuals of S. acus (♀: 31; ♂: 76; immature: 27). The male-female ratios were 1:1.76 and 1:2.45, respectively. A difference was found in sex ratios between the two species (p < 0.05). The mean length of the captured fish was 86.63 ± 16.77 mm for S. abaster and 82.63 ± 16.02 mm for S. acus and the relationship between the total length and weight, referred to as the length-weight relationship, was as follows: W = 0.00000001L3.71 (R2 = 0.89), and W = 0.000000007L3.86 (R2 = 0.83), respectively. Seven morphometric characteristics were analyzed. The analyses revealed that S. acus and S. abaster were significantly different from each other in terms of their body depth (p = 0.006; p < 0.05), mouth width (p = 0.004; p < 0.05) and height (p = 0.008; p < 0.05). High correlation values were obtained for TL/BD and TL/HD in S. abaster and S. acus, respectively (r > 1). In conclusion, among the congeneric species occurring in Lake Bafa, S. abaster and S. acus are characterized by a shorter head length and total length compared to their sea counterparts.

Ecological Traits and Trophic Plasticity in The Greater Pipefish Syngnathus acus in the NW Iberian Peninsula

“…The weight-length relationships in immature fishes (b = 3.32-3.35) agreed with the positive allometric growth reported in southern Portugal (b = 3.33-3.34) [6,76], being above and below those reported for South Africa (b = 3.07) [74] and the Aegean Sea (b = 3.71-3.73) [5,8,77], respectively. Differences in length-weight parameters across the regions might be due to dissimilarities in biotic and abiotic factors [6].…”

“…However, the large size in Cíes individuals agreed with those in eelgrass meadows populations from the northern Atlantic [4,6,75]. Hence, the length in S. acus adults seems to rely on its geographical origin [8]. Additionally, the adult size also seemed to determine the egg/larval size, as suggested by comparing the population from Cíes with those from the Aegean Sea [2] or from Ria de Aveiro in Portugal [13], whose eggs, larvae, and adults were notably smaller.…”

“…Despite its common occurrence in brackish seaweeds and seagrass beds, the biology and ecology of S. acus have been poorly investigated, and data availability is limited to a few studies [4][5][6][7][8] (among others). The reproduction of the species [2] and its feeding habits and prey preference [9][10][11] were investigated in the Aegean Sea; Jennings and van der Molen [12] estimated the trophic position in a few specimens from the Celtic Sea and the English Channel, whereas Silva et al [13] focused on its development and early life history in ex-situ experiments.…”

Some Observations on Relationships of the Liver, Ovary and Body Weights for Pipefish Species at the Lake Bafa Coasts (Muğla)

“…According to these comparisons, b value of S. abaster in this study is found to be higher than b values obtained from other studies (Gurkan and Innal, 2018;Cakić et al, 2002;Khrystenko et al, 2015;Taylan et al, 2018) and similarly b value S.acus is lower than those given by Gurkan Taşkavak (2007) and Yildiz (2015).…”

Ecological Traits and Trophic Plasticity in the Greater Pipefish <em>Syngnathus acus</em> in NW Iberian Peninsula

“…However, the large size in Cíes individuals agreed with those in eelgrass meadows populations from the northern Atlantic [4,6,75]. Hence, the length in S. acus adults seems to rely on its geographical origin [8]. Additionally, adult size also seemed to determine egg/larval size as suggested by comparing the population from Cíes with those from the Aegean Sea [2] or Ria de Aveiro in Portugal [13], whose eggs, larvae and adults were notably smaller.…”