A study on some morphological characteristics of common Kilka, Clupeonella cultriventris, during final stage of gonadal development

A larger proportion of energy intake for reproduction and also low food availability may decrease the growth rate of other organs during the late stage of the gonadal development. The main goal of this study is to examine the biological characteristics and organs growth pattern in Clupeonella cultriventris during the late stages of gonad development. Samples were collected by capturing 300-350 Kilka from a fishery area between Sari and Mahmod-Abad, every 2-3 weeks over October 2008 to April 2009. The length parameters such as fork length, stomach and intestine length and weight parameters such as fish weight, intestine weight and ovary weight were measured. The results showed that the slope of regression between weight and length for females increases At the beginning of sampling period, ovary was quit small, but grew up fast by the beginning of the reproduction and constituted a large part of the female body. The stomach and intestine grew faster than fish length over the study period. A reduction in length-growth of females indicates that greater energy was allocated to gonadal development by the end of reproduction. However, the gastro-intestinal growth pattern did not correlate with fish length, but showed faster growth.