STUDY ON THE MORPHOMETRIC VARIATIONS IN PARADISE THREADFIN FISH (Polynemus paradiseus) COLLECTED FROM GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTINGUISHED COASTAL AREAS OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

found in the estuaries of several different rivers in Bangladesh. Despite the species' widespread range, there is a lack of information about its morphometric variations among populations from separate locations. This research was carried out to examine the morphometric variations of P. paradiseus using the truss network method and body shape morphometrics. The wholeseller or the fisherman from the fisheries ghat in the Chattogram district, the BFDC fishery ghat in the Cox's Bazar district, the chairman ghat in the Noakhali district, the Rupsha wholesale fish market in the Khulna district, and the Fuljhuri fish market in the Borguna district provided a total of 366 samples of the species. Using the Sigmascan pro software platform, we took digital pictures of the samples and used them together with 14 morphometric factors to build a truss network consisting of 32 distance variables. After transforming the truss measurements, factor analysis and a cross-validation discriminant analysis were performed. Factor analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between ten of fourteen morphometric lengths and twenty-six of thirty-two truss network measurements for both males and females at the 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 levels of significance. The factor analysis showed that the P. paradiseus population in these five areas varies significantly in terms of its morphology; Both discriminant function analysis (DFA) and principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that the population from Khulna and Borguna districts differs phenotypically from the Chattogram, Noakhali, and Cox's Bazar populations. The Bay of Bengal and the estuaries may have different physical and biological conditions, which might explain the existence of discrimination among different stocks. These morphological differences are crucial in making the right call for effective management, conservation, and widespread seed production to ensure long-term viability