Gonado-somatic index and fecundity studies in two species of ribbon fishes, Trichiurus lepturus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Lepturacanthus savala (Cuvier, 1829) off Visakhapatnam, east coast of India

Abstract

The gonado-somatic index (GSI) and fecundity of two species of ribbon fishes viz., Trichiurus lepturus and Lepturacanthus savala from Visakhapatnam coast were studied during June 2006 – May 2007. The GSI of males of T. lepturus was high in December 2006 (2.06 ± 0.22) and low in May 2007 (0.05 ± 0.09) whereas in females, it was high in February 2007 (1.54 ± 3.68) and low in May 2007 (0.03 ± 0.05). In L. savala, high GSI values in males and females were observed in July 2006 (1.94 ± 0.07) and March 2007 (2.73 ± 0.17) respectively, and low in September 2006 (0.03 ± 0.02 in males and 0.07 ± 0.05 in females). The fecundity varied from 10,395 to 3,20,712 in T. lepturus and from 9,566 to 7,20,862 in L. savala. The relationship between fecundity to total length, body weight and ovary weight was linear and a similar trend was observed in the relationship of ovary length - total length and ovary weight - body weight.