On 24 February 2014, commercial fishers caught an unusually large Hypophthalmichthys nobilis (Bighead Carp) from an oxbow lake in northwestern Mississippi. We examined it to determine age, gonadal development, and fecundity. The specimen was 1316 mm total length, 49.7 kg, and 11 years old. It had asymmetric ovaries that collectively represented 15.7% of the body weight, with an estimated 1.9 to 2.7 million eggs, ∼40% of which were mature. The data we collected for size, age, and fecundity were all at or near maximum values known for the species. This specimen demonstrates that for life-history studies and demographic models to be representative of introduced populations, rare or hard-to-catch large specimens are required due to their influence on estimates of longevity, mortality, and fecundity.
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1 December 2015
Age and Reproductive Condition of an Unusually Large Bighead Carp from the Lower Mississippi River Basin
Jan Jeffrey Hoover,
Alan W. Katzenmeyer,
Jay Collins,
Bradley R. Lewis,
W. Todd Slack,
Steven G. George
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Southeastern Naturalist
Vol. 14 • No. 4
December 2015
Vol. 14 • No. 4
December 2015