Resumo

BALZA, María Alejandra; LEMUS, Mairin  e  MARIN, Baumar. GROWTH RATE OF Sardinella aurita VALENCIENNES, 1847 (PISCES: CLUPEIDAE) larvae in MORRO DE PUERTO SANTO, VENEZUELA. INCI [online]. 2007, vol.32, n.5, pp.333-338. ISSN 0378-1844.

Daily changes in the microestructure of the sagitta otolith growth rings of Sardinella aurita larvae were related to somatic and biochemical growth. Somatic and biochemical growth were expressed as length/age and RNA/DNA ratio, respectively. Age and the growth of 221 sardine larvae from Morro de Puerto Santo, Venezuela were estimated measuring daily increments in sagitta otoliths and morfometric characters. The nucleic acids and the RNA/DNA ratio were determined by fluorescence. The larval size structure from days 1 to 23 ranged from 2.2 to 17.0mm LS. The increase in size (SL, standard length in mm) as a function of age is expressed by LS= 2.76+0.60×age (r²= 0.83; P<0.001). Larval growth rate and back-calculated growth rate were 0.60 and 0.69mm/day, respectively. The average levels of nucleic acids were RNA/larvae= 1.53µg and DNA/larvae= 0.62µg, while RNA/DNA= 2.61. A highly significant relationship between growth rate and RNA/DNA ratio was found in the sagitta otoliths (r²= 0.83; P<0.001). The larval growth estimated parameters for S. aurita in this study were within the range registered for this species and for other clupeids in different latitudes.

Palavras-chave : Crecimiento de Peces; Larvas de Peces; Peces; Sardina; Sardinella aurita.