Morphometric and meristic characteristics of the Amur sleeper (Perccottus glenii) from the Danube River drainage channel

Dusan Nikolic,Branislav Mickovic,Gorcin Cvijanovic,Vesna Djikanovic,Stefan Skoric,Milica Jacimovic

doi:10.2298/abs210413031n

Abstract

In recent decades, the Amur sleeper (Perccottus glenii) is one of the most impressive east-to-west invaders of European inland waters, but there are insufficient data on its biology in the countries it has entered. Specimens of two sets of samples from November 2015 (n=25) and October 2016 (n=39) were caught in the Danube River channel near Veliko Gradiste (Serbia) by electrofishing. Thirty morphometric and eight meristic characteristics of the collected fish were measured with the aim of describing the general body shape in more detail using the ?point-to-point? method. This is the first attempt to obtain morphometric and meristic characteristics of Amur sleeper caught in Serbia. The results revealed a relatively low variability in the morphometric and meristic characters of the studied population. When compared to other studies, there was a great variability of the studied characteristics between geographically distant European populations that inhabit different water body types. Female fish had more robust bodies compared to males of the same length, while males had longer pectoral, anal and dorsal fins. Additionally, 2+ individuals had more robust heads and jaws, as well as longer anterior parts of the body compared to 1+ individuals of the same size

Highlights

The spread of invasive species in native ecosystems, the extent of which is currently alarming, has a negative effect on original biodiversity and the normal functioning of these ecosystems [1,2,3]
Thirty morphometric and eight meristic characteristics of the collected fish were measured with the aim of describing the general body shape in more detail using the “point-to-point” method
This is the first attempt to obtain morphometric and meristic characteristics of Amur sleeper caught in Serbia

Summary

Introduction

The spread of invasive species in native ecosystems, the extent of which is currently alarming, has a negative effect on original biodiversity and the normal functioning of these ecosystems [1,2,3]. The Amur (Chinese) sleeper or rotan, Perccottus glenii Dybowski, 1877 (Gobiiformes, Odontobutidae), is a freshwater fish that inhabits lakes, ponds, marshes and lentic waters with dense vegetation [7]. This species is native to the Russian far-east, northeastern China and the northern part of North Korea [7,8,9]. The first record of the Amur sleeper in Serbia was in 2001 [12], which was followed by different reports of its spread throughout the Danube River drainage system [13,14,15,16]

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion