Growth and hatching of annular seabream, Diplodus annularis, from Turkey determined from otolith microstructure

Abstract

Otolith microstructure analysis was used to determine daily growth rate and hatching periods of young of the year (YOY) annular seabream, Diplodus annularis, collected by using beach seine from Çanakkale shallow waters between January and December 2007. Total length of the YOY D. annularis was between 20 and 85 mm and the daily ages ranged between 27 and 205 d. Somatic growth rate, estimated by fitting a linear regression to the age–length data set, was calculated as 0.369 mm d−1. Seasonal changes in the growth rate of the YOY D. annularis have been found to be 0.381, 0.369, 0.357 and 0.308 mm d−1 for individuals that hatched in spring, summer, autumn and winter, respectively. Analysis of covariance indicated that there were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the growth rates between the seasons. Hatching period of the YOY D. annularis was estimated to occur between March and September, with relatively higher hatching frequency in June.