The Length-Weight Relationships of Twelve Fish Species from the Heishui River, China

Abstract

Length-weight relationships are presented for twelve fish species collected at 22 sampling points in the Heishui River, a priority tributary for fish conservation in the mainstream of the Baihetan Reservoir area, China. A combination of gill nets was used for sampling over a period between November 2018 and May 2021. The gill nets consisted of 12 nets per point with dimensions of 20 × 2 m (length and width), mesh size ranging from 20 to 80 mm, and soaking depth ranging from 40 to 160 cm. In addition, fixed gill nets were employed, with 10 nets per point having dimensions of 10 to 30 m in length and 1.5 to 2.5 m in width. The mesh size of these fixed gill nets was 10, 15, or 20 mm. This study presents the length-weight relationships of twelve species for the first time in the Heishui River Basin, including the new maximum body length of Pseudorasbora parva (Temminck and Schlegel, 1846). The slope (b) values for the assessed species ranged from 2.5 to 3.5. All the estimated relationships are highly significant (P < 0.05) with a high coefficient of determination R² ranging from 0.9574 to 0.9997. It is expected that the results obtained from this study will contribute to filling the knowledge gap in this area and also assist fisheries scientists in future assessment studies.