A comparative evaluation of age and growth of the cyprinid fish, Labeo calbasu (Hamilton-Buchanan) from different wild populations

Abstract

An understanding of age and growth in aquatic animals is crucial to understand the dynamics of the population, and the impacts ofexploitation in the natural water bodies. In the present study, the age composition and growth of Labeo calbasu from the different geographical areas were determined from the scale samples collected between June 2000 to March 2002. Higher growth rates were recorded for the fishes collected from river Hooghly followed by Ghagra and Gerua rivers. The samples collected from Ganga river showed lower growth rate ascompared to Ghagra and Gerua rivers. Age estimates based annual growth rings exhibited faster growth patterns in female than male. The maximum total length (TL) observed in the third year group for females and males were 472.6 mm and 455.6 mm respectively. Mean back-calculated total Length at age indicated higher growth rate in the first year of life with the fish attaining a maximum size of 339.0 mm.