AGE AND GROWTH OF CRETEUCHILOGLANIS MACROPTERUS

To study age and growth of Creteuchiloglanis macropterus, 230 specimens were collected from the Nu River, Binlang River and Longchuan River from November 2013 to September 2014. Simplified decalcified histological sections of pectoral fin spines were used to estimate the age. Reader agreement rate of ages between pectoral fin spines and vertebra was 86.36%. Pectoral fin spines could be used for estimating the age efficiently. There were nine age groups of collected samples, and most individuals were 1—3 year-old accounting for about 65% of total samples. The relationship between the radius of pectoral fin spines (R_C) and total length (L) was L=2.0787·R_C^0.6273 (R²=0.8866, n=180). There was no significant difference between measured body length and back-calculated body length at each age group (χ²=0.776, df=8, P=0.999). Meanwhile, the relationship between total length (L) and body weight (W) showed no significant difference between females and males, and it expressed as W=1E–4L^2.4807 (R²=0.8189, n=180). Von Bertalanffy growth function was L_t=377.015·1–e^{–0.0491(t+4.0195)}, W_t=246.134·1–e^{–0.0491(t+4.0195)2.4807}. In addition, the age at the inflection point of body weight growth was 14.48 years, in which total length and body weight were 225.00 mm and 68.40 g, respectively. C. macropterus was allometric growth and individual miniaturization. Its resources were heavy damaged. We should take action to strictly ban unreasonable catching in the future and strengthen scientific research on C. macropterus to preserve the resources.