Variation Among Four Health Indices in Natural Populations of the Estuarine Fish, Fundulus heteroclitus (Pisces, Cyprinodontidae), from Five Geographically Proximate Estuaries

Abstract

Variation among four commonly used health indices was examined in the mummichog, Fundulus heteroclitus. The four indices were liver glycogen content (LGC), liver-somatic index (LSI), condition index (K) and RNA–DNA ratio. Fish were collected from five coastal locations in southeastern Connecticut. Fish health, as determined by these four indices, varied considerably among estuaries and between sexes. The relationship between each index and specimen length was significantly different among estuaries for either sex. When regressed against length, the slopes for the indices ranged from positive to negative. For each index, significant differences existed among some of the length-centered means at each estuary for either sex. Estuary rank for one index did not necessarily correlate with the estuary rank for another index. The significance of this variability and its impact on the use of the indices as bioindicators of environmental perturbation is discussed.