Truss Morphometric and Meristic Characters of Male and Female Donkey Croaker (Pennahia anea (Bloch 1793)) Taken from Asemdoyong Auction Center Pemalang, Central Java

Abstract

Pennahia anea is among of the demersal fish landed at Asemdoyong Fish Auction Centre, Pemalang. P. anea doesn't show sexual dimorphism, so that other characters are needed to differentiate male and female individuals, i.e. truss morphometric and meristic characters. Previous studies have shown that truss morphometric and meristic can differentiate between male and female individuals. This study aims to describe the morphometric and meristic truss characters and determine the truss morphometrically and meristic characters that distinguish between males and females of Pennahia anea. The research used a survey method with a purposive random sampling technique. Male and female individuals of P. anea were examined based on their meristic and truss morphometric characters. The data were analyzed statistically using Mann Whitney non-parametric test. The result proved that male and female were significantly different in seven out of the 31 truss distances. Male individuals had a larger size than female individuals in three truss distances. In contrast, the male had a smaller size than the female individuals in four out of seven truss distances that distinguish both sexualities. The soft fin radius of the ventral fin was significantly different between male and female of P. anea. It could be concluded that male and female individuals of Pennahia anea have different truss distances and meristic characters with seven truss distances and one meristic character are different