ON THE PATTERN OF CORRELATION BETWEEN THE FECUNDITY, LENGTH, WEIGHT AND AGE OF MUGIL CEPHALUS LINNAEUS, 1978 (MUGILIDAE) FROM THE BULGARIAN BLACK SEA COAST
RADOSLAVA BEKOVA1*, GALERIDA RAIKOVA-PETROVA2
1 – Department of Marine Geology and Archaeology, Institute of Oceanology, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Varna, Bulgaria
2 – Department of General and Applied Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria
* Corresponding author: radoslavabekova@gmail.com
Keywords: Mugil cephalus, Bulgarian Black Sea coast, fecundity
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to show the correlation between the fecundity, length, weight and age of Mugil cephalus Linnaeus from the areas of Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Absolute fecundity varied from a minimum of 423 267 for age 2 (L - 16.9 cm, EW - 51g) to a maximum of 6 002 345 oocytes for age 8 (L - 43.5 cm, EW - 1101 g). The mean fecundity was 305 972 eggs.
Relationship between absolute fecundity and weight and fecundity and length was best described by the following equations: F=492043+4216.6W, r=0.9675 and F =-5000000 + 2359954L, r=0.9614. Fecundity-age relationship was best described by the exponential equation: F=77053e1.8797t, r = 0.90.
The average weighted relative fecundity was 501. A more accurate indicator to describe the relative fecundity is the coefficient b from the equation witch F = a+b*W. For flathead grey mullet the coefficient b is 4216.6.