(Gadus morhua) and Arctic Cod (Boreogadus saida)

Laboratory reared eggs and yolk sac larvae of Greenland cod (Gadus ogac) from West Greenland are described and compared to wild-caught larvae from West Greenland pre-sumed to be G. ogac, to wild-caught larvae of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from West Green-land waters and in the literature, to larvae...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: From West Greenland Waters, O. G. N. Andersen, J. R. Nielsen, E. L. B. Smidt
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.483.4284
http://journal.nafo.int/J16/andersen.pdf
Description
Summary:Laboratory reared eggs and yolk sac larvae of Greenland cod (Gadus ogac) from West Greenland are described and compared to wild-caught larvae from West Greenland pre-sumed to be G. ogac, to wild-caught larvae of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from West Green-land waters and in the literature, to larvae of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) in the literature and wild-caught in West Greenland waters and to a literature description of larvae of toothed cod (Arctogadus borisovi). The almost total absence of external pre-anal pigmentation with none dorsally in late stage embryos and yolk sac larvae of G. ogac up to 5.2 mm notochord length (NL) distinguishes them from the other species, where extensive external pre-anal pigmentation is always present, at least dorsally. Also, a larger maximum yolk sac larval size of at least 5.2 mm NL (based on reared specimens) compared to a maximum of 4.0–4.5 mm NL and post-anal length/total length ratios of 0.55–0.59 compared to 0.51 respectively in G. ogac and G. morhua distinguish these species. Concerning the post-anal pairs of dorsal and ventral pigment bars and ventral and dorsal caudal melanophores posterior to these, in G. ogac the first dorsal bar is usually shorter than the ventral bar, while the second dorsal bar is usually the longer of the pair, and there are 2–6 ventral and 0–1 dorsal melanophores. In G. morhua the ventral bars are the wider and there are 1–2 ventral melanophores. In B. saida both of the dorsal pigment bars are wider than the ventral ones, and there are 0–1 ventral and 0–2 dorsal melanophores. Three 6–12 mm NL G. morhua larvae from West Greenland have a 24–38 % greater horizontal eye width than larvae of simi-lar sizes from boreal North Atlantic waters.