New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Age-related growth characteristics of Galaxias fasciatus (Salmoniformes: Galaxiidae)

C. L. Hopkins

Fisheries Research Division, Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries, Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract Galaxias fasciatus Gray is one of the diadromous galaxiids whose juveniles are known in New Zealand as whitebait. Its otoliths are shown to have a regular pattern of summer and winter zones that can be used for age determination. Age and annual growth were examined in specimens from the South Island and from the Owhiro Stream, Wellington. A form of the von Bertalanffy growth equation was used to fit curves to the observed data. Body lengths ranged from 4 cm in juveniles just entering fresh water to nearly 25 cm in the largest adults. Females were found to grow faster and to reach a greater size than males. The oldest fish successfully aged was in its tenth year. About 21% of fish from Banks Peninsula exceeded age 5, but only 7% from Owhiro Stream were older than this.

New Zealand Journal of Marine & Freshwater Research, 1979, 13(1): 39-46.
Received 13 October 1977; revision received 23 August 1978 Fisheries Research Division Publication 350

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (869K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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