Morphological development of Roach fish (Rutilus rutilus caspicus) in the early stages of life (The time to 80 days after hatching)

Caspian roach larvae similar to teleost fish are poorly developed at hatching. Theyundergon important functional and morphological changes during early larval periodto achieva survival and environmental performance. This study was designed tomorphological changes in the early develpmental stages of Caspian roach. Larvaewere sampled from hatching upto 80 days post hatching (DPH). Head length, trunklength and tail length obtained from 2D pictures of specimens using the ImageJsoftware and allometric growth pattern was calculated as a power function of totallength using non-transformed data: Y=ax b . Weighing of samples was performedusing a digital scale with an accuracy nearst 0.1 mg. Inflexion points growth curvesbased on Van snik and et al (1997) determined and some of morphological changesdescribed. The results showed that Caspian roach larvae can divided into four phasesincluding prolarvae from hatching until three DPH, from 3 day to 30 day Post afterhatching Post larva stage of the 30 day to 41 post after hatching Prejuvenile stage andthen enters into juvenile stage. The morphological devcelopment and growth patternin this process closely matched with the essential requirements during earlydevelopment.

Keywords:

Morphological Development , Growth , Roach