Abstract

GONZALEZ-SUAREZ, ÁNGEL-RAFAEL;. Growth of the golden catfish Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii in the Middle Orinoco region using multiple models. Rev.Bio.Agro [online]. 2023, vol.21, n.1, pp.97-107.  Epub July 01, 2023. ISSN 1692-3561.  https://doi.org/10.18684/rbsaa.v21.n1.2023.2030.

Traditionally, the von Bertalanffy model has been used as the only standard in the study of fish growth, considering it a priori as the only model that fits the length-age data of the species; a consideration that generates uncertainties in the values of the growth parameters that are estimated, since it is known that other growth models could also fit the length-age data. In this sense, in the Middle Orinoco region, a study of Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii growth was previously done using the traditional von Bertalanffy model, and the results were subsequently used to evaluate the population; hence the objective of the present work was to validate the results of the previous work, fitting the same length-age data to the growth models of the U Richards family, and selecting the best fit using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). As demonstrated in the first paper, the traditional von Bertalanffy model fitted the back-calculated length-age data, but only 35;4 %; while the majority (64,6 %) fitted the U von Bertalanffy, U Logistic, and U Gompertz models, with no superiority of any of them in the fit. The growth parameters estimated from na average model were somewhat from those obtained in the previous work, and therefore necessary to re-evaluate the resource to know its level of exploitation in the Middle Orinoco.

Keywords : Fishery; Stock assessment; Population dynamics; Fishery resource management; Freshwater fish; Orinoco River; Large catfish; Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii; Age and growth; Growth parameters.

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