Age and growth of the Duckbill Catfish (Sorubim cf. lima) in the Pantanal

• Autor(a) principal: Penha,J. M. F.
• Data de Publicação: 2004
• Outros Autores: Mateus,L. A. F., Barbieri,G.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Biology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-69842004000100014
• topic: Duckbill Catfish; age; growth; fin spine; Sorubim lima; Pantanal

The Duckbill Catfish, Sorubim lima, is a predator of large South American rivers. The age and growth of S. lima were studied based on the pectoral fin-spines of samples collected from the Cuiabá River, Pantanal. The samples were taken from commercial and experimental hook-and-line fishing. An analysis of the marginal increment suggests that the growth rings are formed once a year during the dry season, from July to September (ANOVA type I: F = 4.183; g.l. = 3 and 104; p = 0.008). The estimate of the parameters that describe von Bertalanffy's growth curve by nonlinear regression of the observed lengths in the age were: L<FONT FACE=Symbol>¥</FONT> = 56.0 cm (fork length); k = 0.245 year-1; t o = -2.605 years. The animals were estimated to have a life span of 9.6 years. The findings indicate that the fork length is a good predictor of the age of individuals of this fish species.