Abstract
Ecological aspects of recruitment in the amphidromous goby, Sicyopterus japonicus, were studied from larval collections made with a set net in the estuary of the Ota River, Wakayama, Japan. The abundance patterns of the 12,766 larvae collected from 18 April to 26 August 2006 showed several peaks during the recruitment season. Their body sizes at recruitment ranged from 23.5 to 30.0 mm standard length (mean ± SD, 26.3 ± 1.1 mm), 0.11 to 0.49 g body weight (0.22 ± 0.05 g), and 8 to 20 condition factor (11 ± 2). The standard length of the goby larvae tended to decrease with the season, while their body weight slightly increased and resulted in an increase in condition factor. The recruitment of larvae occurred mainly during the daytime. Otolith growth increment analysis of 30 larvae collected by a square lift net on 30 April 2005 revealed that the oceanic larval duration after downstream migration ranged from 173 to 253 days (208 ± 22) after hatching. A limited time of recruitment in early summer and a considerably long duration of oceanic life (about a half year) appeared to be unique characteristics of this Sicyopterus species that lives in a temperate region in comparison to other tropical species of the genus Sicyopterus that all have year-round recruitment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akihito, Sakamoto K, Ikeda Y, Iwata A (2000) Gobioidei. In: Nakabo T (ed) Fishes of Japan with pictorial keys to the species. 2nd edn. Tokai University Press, Tokyo
Bell KNI (1999) An overview of goby-fry fisheries. Naga 22:30–36
Bell KNI, Pepin P, Brown JA (1995) Seasonal, inverse cycling of length and age-at-recruitment in the diadromous gobies Sicydium punctatum and Sicydium antillarum in Dominica, West Indies. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 52:1535–1545
Benbow ME, Burky AJ, Way CM (2004) The use of two modified Breder traps to quantitatively study amphidromous upstream migration. Hydrobiol 527:139–151
Bertin L (1956) Eels - a biological study. Clever-Hume, London
Bielsa S, Francisco P, Mastrorillo S, Parent JP (2003) Seasonal changes of periphytic nutritive quality for Sicyopterus lagocephalus (Pallas, 1770) (Gobiidae) in three streams of Reunion Island. Annal Limnol-Internat J Limnol 39:115–127
Dôtu Y, Mito S (1955) Life history of the gobioid fish, Sicydium japonicum Tanaka. Sci Bull Fac Agric Kyushu Univ 10:120–126
Erdman D (1986) The green stream goby, Sicydium plumieri, in Puerto Rico. Trop Fish Hobbyist 2:70–74
Fitzsimons JM, Nishimoto RT, Yuen AR (1993) Courtship and territorial behavior in the native Hawaiian stream goby, Sicyopterus stimpsoni. Ichthyol Explor Freshw 4:1–10
Froese R, Pauly D (2007). FishBase. In: World Wide Web electronic publication. Pages version (Apr 2007). http://www.fishbase.org/search. Cited 30 Jun 2007
Fukui S (1979) Rock climbing behavior of the goby, Sicyopterus japonicus. Japan J Ichthyol 26:84–88
Harrison IJ (1993) The West African sicydiine fishes, with notes on the genus Lentipes (Teleostei: Gobiidae). Ichthyol Explor Freshw 4:201–232
Hoareau TB, Lecomte-Finiger R, Grondin H-P, Conand C, Berrebi P (2007) Oceanic larval life of La Reunion ‘bichiques’, amphidromous gobiid post-larvae. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 333:303–308
Keith P (2003) Biology and ecology of amphidromous Gobiidae of the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean regions. J Fish Biol 63:831–847
Kinzie RA (1993) Reproductive biology of an endemic, amphidromous goby Lentipes concolor in Hawaiian Streams. Environm Biol Fish 37:257–268
Manacop PR (1953) The life history and habits of the goby, Sicyopterus extraneus Herre (Anga) gobiidae with an account of the goby-fry fishery of Cagayan River, Oriental Misamis. Philipp J Fish 2:1–58
McDowall RM (1988) Diadromy in fishes: migrations between freshwater and marine environments. Croom Helm, London
National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) (2006) the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), US Department of Commerce. http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/. Cited 28 Dec 2006
Radtke RL, Kinzie RA, Shafer DJ (2001) Temporal and spatial variation in length of larval life and size at settlement of the Hawaiian amphidromous goby Lentipes concolor. J Fish Biol 59:928–938
Shen KN, Tzeng WN (2002) Formation of a metamorphosis check in otoliths of the amphidromous goby Sicyopterus japonicus. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 228:205–211
Shen KN, Lee YC, Tzeng WN (1998) Use of otolith microchemistry to investigate the life history pattern of gobies in a Taiwanese stream. Zool Stud 37:322–329
Sparks JS, Nelson DW (2004) Review of the Malagasy sicydiine gobies (teleostei: gobiidae), with description of a new species and comments on the taxonomic status of Gobius lagocephalus Pallas, 1770. Am Mus Novit 3440:1–20
Tate DC, Fitzsimons JM, Cody RP (1992) Hawaiian freshwater fishes (osteichthyes, gobiidei) a field key to the species of larvae and postlarvae during recruitment into fresh waters. Occas Pap Mus Nat Sci 65:1–10
Tesch F-W (2003) The eel. Blackwell, London
Tsukamoto K (1988) Migratory mechanisms and behavioral characteristics in Ayu. In: Ueno T, Okiyama M (eds) Ichthyology currents. Asakura-Shobo, Tokyo
Watanabe S, Iida M, Kimura Y, Feunteun E, Tsukamoto K (2006) Genetic diversity of Sicyopterus japonicus as revealed by mitochondrial DNA sequencing. Cost Mar Sci 30:473–479
Watson RE, Marquet G, Pollabauer C (2000) New Caledonia fish species of the genus Sicyopterus (Teleostei: Gobioidei: Sicydiinae). Aqua 4:5–34
Yamasaki N, Tachihara K (2006) Reproductive biology and morphology of eggs and larvae of Stiphodon percnopterygionus (Gobiidae: Sicydiinae) collected from Okinawa Island. Ichthyol Res 53:13–18
Yamasaki N, Maeda K, Tachihara K (2007) Pelagic larval duration and morphology at recruitment of Stiphodon percnopterygionus (Gobiidae: Sicydiinae). Raffles Bull Zool Suppl 14:209–214
Yuma M, Maruyama A, Rusuwa B (2000) Behavior and distribution of upstream-migrating juvenile Rhinogobius sp (the orange form). Ichthyol Res 47:379–384
Acknowledgement
We sincerely thank S. Fukui, M. Itou and S. Takino for their useful and kind help during sampling. We are grateful to S. Harada, T. Gosho, T. Yamada and N. Horiki for special permission to sample in the Ota River and to N. Yamasaki of the University of Ryukyus, Y. Ju of National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Taiwan for permission to refer to their unpublished data. We would like to thank E. Feunteun for constructive suggestions about the fieldwork. This paper benefited from suggestions by M. J. Miller, and we thank J. Aoyama and M. Oya for assistance and encouragement with many aspects of the study. M. I. was partly supported by the Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant from The Japan Science Society. S. W. was partly supported by a Research Fellowships of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists (no. 18780143) and Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan (no. 19208019).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Iida, M., Watanabe, S., Shinoda, A. et al. Recruitment of the amphidromous goby Sicyopterus japonicus to the estuary of the Ota River, Wakayama, Japan. Environ Biol Fish 83, 331–341 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9345-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9345-7