Determination of age and growth of the mudskipper Periophthalmus waltoni Koumans, 1955 (Actinopterygii: Perciformes) on the mudflats of Qeshm Island and Bandar-Abbas, Iran

Sarafraz, Jaleh; Abdoli, Asghar; Hassanzadeh, Bahram; Kamrani, Ehsan; Akbarian, Mohamad Ali

doi:10.22059/pbs.2011.22456

Determination of age and growth of the mudskipper Periophthalmus waltoni Koumans, 1955 (Actinopterygii: Perciformes) on the mudflats of Qeshm Island and Bandar-Abbas, Iran

Authors

Jaleh Sarafraz ¹

Asghar Abdoli ¹

Bahram Hassanzadeh ¹

Ehsan Kamrani ²

Mohamad Ali Akbarian ³

¹ Shahid Beheshti University-P.H.D

² University of Hormozgan-P.H.D

³ Shahid Beheshti University-p.H.D

10.22059/pbs.2011.22456

Abstract

In order to determine the age structure, growth, and length-weight relationship of the mudskipper,
Periophthalmus waltoni, from coastal mudflats of Qeshm Island, Soroo and Bandar-pol, in Hormuzgan
Province, Iran, we collected 192 individuals in February 2007. Age was determined using
the second pectoral radial bone and year class was based on length-frequency distributions.
Growth was described by the von Bertalanffy growth model. For Bandar-Pol mudskippers, =
141.51 mm, k = 0.46 year-1, and t0 = 0.79 year. For Qeshm mudskippers, = 166.79 mm, k = 0.42
year-1, and t0 = 0.62 year. Overall, males grew larger than females ( = 208 mm vs. 147 mm),
while females grew faster (k = 0.41 vs. 0.19 year-1). The age when the theoretical length was 0 (t0)
was 1.46 year for males and 0.88 for females. Maximum age was estimated to be 4+ years.

Keywords

age

Growth

Length-weight relationship

Periophthalmus waltoni

Qeshm Island and Bandar-Abbas