Morphological Description of the Early Life Stages of Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii (Castelnau, 1855), a Large Migratory Catfish from the Amazon

Authors: Souza da Silva FK*, Oliveira LS, Cajado RA, Dos Santos Z and Zacardi DM

DOI: 10.23880/izab-16000394

Volume 5, Issue 4

Abstract

The early development of Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii from the Amazon River was described through morphological, meristic and morphometric features, providing useful characters for identification of the species. The specimens of B. rousseauxii analyzed came from samples taken middle Solimões River, in the state of Amazonas, Brazil. The larvae were collected by horizontal trawls on the subsurface of the water column, with a plankton net (300 μm). The larvae and juveniles of B. rousseauxii showed a standard length ranging from 12.68 to 29.29 mm. The specimens were characterized by having a long snout (>40% of CC), small eyes (<10% of CC), anal opening reaching the mid-section of the body (≥50% of CP), a pair of barbels maxillary and two mentonian barbels, both not exceeding the anal fin, two spines on the dorsal fin, presence of filaments in the caudal fin and total myomeres with 46 segments (19 pre-anal and 27 post-anal). Number of fin segments corresponded to: pectoral= I+9, pelvic= I+5, dorsal= II+6 and anal=19. We expect that this study will expand the knowledge about the developmental biology of fish species in the Neotropical region.

Keywords: Fish Larvae; Development Biology; Ontogeny; Goliath Catfish

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