Hostname: page-component-5d84bcc8dc-z9l2z Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-09-05T00:33:22.311Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Population dynamics and reproduction of wild longsnout seahorse Hippocampus reidi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2011

Ana C.G. Mai  and
Gonzalo Velasco
Ana C.G. Mai*
Affiliation:
Pós-graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil
Gonzalo Velasco
Affiliation:
Instituto de Oceanografia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil, CEP 96101-900
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A.C.G. Mai, Pós-graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, Brazil email: anacecilia_mai@yahoo.com.br
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Life-history characteristics such as growth, mortality, and size at sexual maturity of the seahorse Hippocampus reidi were investigated in situ in north-eastern Brazil from August 2006 to July 2007. The von Bertalanffy growth constant K was estimated at 1.195 year−1 and L∞ was set as 20 cm according to Taylor's relationship, using a Lmax of 19 cm. The smallest male with a brood pouch and the smallest male with a fully mature pouch measured 9 and 9.5 cm (height), respectively, while the smallest mature female measured 8.8 cm. Appropriate reproductive individuals were recorded throughout the study, with peaks from May to November. The size of first effective reproduction (carrying embryos) was 12.4 cm for males, a value higher than previously reported. Estimated instantaneous rate of natural mortality ranged from 1.43 to 1.58 year−1. The estimated life span for the species was 30 months.

Keywords

American longsnout seahorsereproductiongrowthmark–recaptureSyngnathidaefirst maturitylife span and survival

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 92 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 421 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Appeldoorn, R. (1987) Modification of a seasonally oscillating growth function for use with mark–recapture data. Journal du Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer 43, 194–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, J.K., Meeuwig, J.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2003) Bycatch of lined seahorses (Hippocampus erectus) in a Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery. Fishery Bulletin 101, 721–731.Google Scholar
Baum, J.K. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2005) Magnitude and inferred impacts of the seahorse trade in Latin America. Environmental Conservation 32, 305–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boisseau, J. (1967) Régulations hormonales de l'incubation chez un vertébré mâle: recherches sur la reproduction de l'Hippocampe. PhD thesis. Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, FR.Google Scholar
CITES (2004) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Meeting of the Nomenclature Committee Geneva (Switzerland), 19 August 2003. Project Seahorse, 5 pp.Google Scholar
Curtis, J.M.R. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2006) Life history of an unusual marine fish: survival, growth and movement patterns of Hippocampus guttulatus Cuvier 1829. Journal of Fish Biology 68, 707–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farnsworth, E.J. (2007) Plant life history traits of rare versus frequent plant taxa of sandplains: implications for research and management trials. Biological Conservation 136, 44–52.Google Scholar
Foster, S. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2004) The life history and ecology of seahorses, Hippocampus spp.: implications for conservation and management. Journal of Fish Biology 65, 1–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, S. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2005) Enhancing sustainability of the international trade in seahorses with a single minimum size limit. Conservation Biology 19, 1044–1050.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gayanilo, F.C. Jr, Sparre, P. and Pauly, D. (2005) ICLARM Stock Assessment Tools—FISAT II (version 1.2.2). Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Hoenig, J.M. and Gruber, S.H. (1990) Life-history patterns in the elasmobranchs: implications for fisheries management. NOAA Technical Report NMFS 90:1–16.Google Scholar
Hora, M.S.C. and Joyeux, J.C. (2009) Closing the reproductive cycle: growth of the seahorse Hippocampus reidi (Teleostei, Syngnathidae) from birth to adulthood under experimental conditions. Aquaculture 292, 37–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IUCN (2010) IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1. <www.iucnredlist.org> (accessed 6 June 2010).+(accessed+6+June+2010).>Google Scholar
King, M.G. (1995) Fisheries biology, assessment and management. Oxford, MS: Fishing News Books.Google Scholar
Mai, A.C.G. and Loebmann, D. (2009) Size and number of newborn juveniles in wild Hippocampus reidi broods. Pan-American Journal of Aquatic Sciences 4, 154–157.Google Scholar
Mai, A.C.G. and Rosa, I.M.L. (2009) Ecological aspects of the seahorse Hippocampus reidi in the Camurupim/Cardoso estuary, Piauí State, Brazil, as subsidies for the implementation of an Environmental Protection Area. Biota Neotropica 9, 1–7.Google Scholar
Munro, J.L. (1982) Estimation of the parameters of the von Bertalanffy growth equation from recapture data at variable time intervals. Journal du Conseil International pour l'Exploration de la Mer 40, 199–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivotto, I., Avella, M.A., Sampaolesi, G., Piccinetti, C.C., Navarro, R.P. and Carnevali, O. (2008) Breeding and rearing the longsnout seahorse Hippocampus reidi: Rearing and feeding studies. Aquaculture 283, 92–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauly, D. (1980) On the interrelationships between natural mortality, growth parameters, and mean environmental temperature in 175 fish stocks. Journal du Conseil International pour L'Exploration de la Mer 39, 175–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perante, N.C., Pajaro, M.G., Meeuwig, J.J. and Vincent, A.C.J. (2002) Biology of a seahorse species, Hippocampus comes in the central Philippines. Journal of Fish Biology 60, 821–837.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, J.D., Dulvy, N.K., Goodwin, N.B. and Hutchings, J.A. (2005) Biology of extinction risk in marine fishes. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 1579, 337–2344. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3281Google Scholar
Rikhter, V.A. and Efanov, V.N. (1976) On one of the approaches to estimation of natural mortality of fish population. ICNAF Research Document 76/VI/8, 12 pp.Google Scholar
Rosa, I.M.L., Alves, R.R.N., Bonifácio, K.M., Mourão, J.S., Osório, F.M., Oliveira, T.P.R. and Nottingham, M.C. (2005) Fishers' knowledge and seahorse conservation in Brazil. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 1, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosa, I.M.L., Oliveira, T.P.R., Castro, A.L.C., Moraes, L.E.S., Xavier, J.H.A., Nottingham, M.C., Dias, T.L.P., Bruto-Costa, L.V., Araújo, M.E., Birolo, A.B., Mai, A.C.G. and Monteiro-Neto, C. (2007) Population characteristics, space use and habitat associations of the seahorse Hippocampus reidi Ginsburg, 1933. Neotropical Ichthyology 5, 405–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silveira, R.B. (2005) Dinâmica populacional do cavalo-marinho Hippocampus reidi no manguezal de Maracaípe, Ipojuca, Pernambuco, Brasil. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul Faculdade, Porto Alegre, Brasil.Google Scholar
Smith, E.B., Williams, F.M. and Fisher, C.R. (1997) Effects of intrapopulation variability on von Bertalanffy growth parameter estimates from equal mark–recapture intervals. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 54, 2025–2032.Google Scholar
Sparre, P., Ursin, E. and Venema, S.C. (1989) Introduction to tropical fish stock assessment. Part 1: manual. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 306.1. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Google Scholar
Taylor, C.C. (1958) Cod growth and temperature. Journal du Conseil International pour L'Exploration de la Mer 23, 365–370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C.C. (1959) Temperature, growth and mortality—the Pacific razor clam. Journal du Conseil International pour L'Exploration de la Mer 25, 93–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, C.C. (1960) Temperature, growth and mortality—the Pacific cockle. Journal du Conseil International pour L'Exploration de la Mer 26, 117–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vari, R.P. (1982) Fishes of the Western North Atlantic, Part 8. Order Gasterosteiformes, Suborder Syngnathoidea. Syngnathidae (Doryrhamphinae, Syngnathinae, Hippocampinae). New Haven, CT: Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale University.Google Scholar
Velasco, G. (1998) Crescimento e mortalidade natural de Netuma barba (Lacépède,1803) (Siluriformes, Ariidae) no estuário da Lagoa dos Patos, RS, Brasil. Dissertation. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, BRA.Google Scholar
Velasco, G. and Oddone, M.C. (2004) Growth parameters and growth performance indexes for some populations of marine catfishes (Actinopterygii, Siluriformes, Ariidae). Acta Biológica Leopoldensia 21, 306–313.Google Scholar
Velasco, G., Reis, E.G. and Vieira, J.P. (2007) Calculating growth parameters of Genidens barbus (Siluriformes, Ariidae): using length composition and age data. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 23, 64–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincent, A.C.J. (1990) Reproductive ecology of seahorses. PhD thesis. Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Vincent, A.C.J. and Sadler, L.A. (1995) Faithful pair bonds in wild seahorses, Hippocampus whitei. Animal Behavior 50, 1557–1569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincent, A.C.J. and Giles, B.G. (2003) Correlates of reproductive success in a wild population of Hippocampus whitei. Journal of Fish Biology 63, 344–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vincent, A.C.J., Marsden, A.D., Evans, K.L. and Sadler, L.M. (2004) Temporal and spatial opportunities for polygamy in a monogamous seahorse, Hippocampus whitei. Behaviour 141, 141–156.Google Scholar