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| Population Characteristics, Maturation and Spawning of the Blue Swimmer Crab Portunus pelagicus in Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Egypt |
Fatma A. Abdel Razek  ,
Marwa I. Farghaly,
Jehan Sorour and Azza Attia |
Abstract:
Background and Objective: Despite its abundance and commercial importance, little is known about the biology of the blue swimmer crab, Portunus pelagicus (Linnaeus, 1758), of the Egyptian waters. The study aimed to characterize the maturation stages of male and female P. pelagicus through external morphological and histological examination during gonad development, with determination of gonadosomatic index (GSI), size at first sexual maturity and spawning population from Alexandria coastal waters of Egypt. Materials and Methods: The current study investigated the sexual maturity and other reproductive biology characteristics of P. pelagicus from the Egyptian Mediterranean coast off Alexandria during the period from March, 2015-February, 2016 and the data were statistically analyzed, represented in mean and standard deviation. Results: The length-weight relationships of males showed nearly an isometric pattern of growth, whereas, in females they revealed a marked departure from isometric growth. Female gonadal development stages were morphologically and histologically investigated, they were comprised of five stages, while three development stages were recorded for male. The size at which P. pelagicus reached sexual maturity was at 107.6 and 96.1 mm carapace width (CW) for males and females, respectively. Ovigerous female showed a prolonged occurrence during the warm months, from March-October. Conclusion: According to gonad maturation, GSI and the occurrence of ripe and ovigerous females, two peaks of spawning activity were detected, in April-May and in August-September. Hence, it is reasonable to say that ovigerous females may spawn more than one time throughout the year.
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How to cite this article:
Fatma A. Abdel Razek, Marwa I. Farghaly, Jehan Sorour and Azza Attia, 2019. Population Characteristics, Maturation and Spawning of the Blue Swimmer Crab Portunus pelagicus in Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Egypt. Asian Journal of Biological Sciences, 12: 626-636.
DOI: 10.3923/ajbs.2019.626.636
URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajbs.2019.626.636
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