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.
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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University of Ryukyus, Y. Ju of National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Taiwan for permission to refer to their unpublished data.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).
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9345-7