Reproductive Biology and Feeding Habit of Gold Spot Mullet, Liza parsia

Abstract

The gold spot mullet, Liza parsia (Hamilton, 1822), locally referred to as “Parsie”, is a marine teleost fish suitable for culture in brackish water ecosystem. To date, very few reports on artificial propagation of gold spot mullet has ever been recorded and still seed stocking relies on wild recruitment. In order to determine the fecundity, reproductive biology and feeding habit of L. parsia, 75 gravid females were collected at the Pasur River and different shrimp farms in Khulna district, Bangladesh, from November 2010 to January 2011. The condition factor was ranged from 10.12 to 15.05 with a mean value of 12.35±1.08 . Fecundity of L. parsia ranged from 56541 to 188860 and the mean fecundity was calculated as 122,999±30,035. Total weight of the gonad was varied from 5.41 to 18.41 g, wherein the left lobe of the ovary varied from 2.78 to 9.57 g and the right lobe from 2.63 to 9.25 g. The mean weight of the right lobe gonad was g where as that for left lobe was 5.59±1.38 g and the mean weight of gonad was 11.53±2.77g. The regression equation for fecundity with total length, standard length, body weight and gonad weight was estimated as F=-176359+16034.5 TL(r2=0.60), F=-132956+16059.9 SL(r2=0.57), F=-5595.3+1588.79 BW(r2=0.63), F=9048.16+9881.27 GW(r2=0.83), respectively. The regression equation for total length, standard length and body weight with the gonad weight was estimated as GW=-19.154+1.64 TL(r2=0.74), GW=-15.41+1.69 SL(r2=0.74), and GW=-1.78+0.16 BW(r2=0.80), respectively. The GSI values obtained in the present study were varied between 7.90 to 17.61 with a mean value of 14.20±1.65. The stomach contents were composed of a wide variety of algae, diatoms, desmids, plant materials, annelids, crustacean, bivalves, fishes, detritus and sand grains, indicating that the fish is omnivorous in its feeding habits. The findings obtained from this preliminary study would be helpful towards the understanding of the feeding habits, breeding season, gamete maturation and spawning activities, which will ultimately facilitate the mass seed production, aquaculture development and biodiversity conservation of this important fishery.