Length-Weight Relationship of 20 Cryptobenthic Fish in Coral and Rocky Reefs in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Abstract

We present the length-weight relationships (LWRs) in 20 cryptobenthic reef fish species in the Gulf of California (Mexico). Nine of these species had no LWR records yet. However, the other species had LWRs based on in-formalin specimens collected more than 20 years ago. This conservation method has likely affected LWRs parameters. Our study showed higher estimations of the parameter a obtained on fresh specimens than in-formalin individuals. On the other hand, parameter b was not affected. Therefore, the biomass estimates using previous LWRs were strongly underestimated. Ergo, the similitude in parameter b between the two conservation methods highlights that the shape of the LWRs is conserved and did not change over the last 20 years. Finally, we compared the LWRs of shared species in the region’s two main types of shallow reefs, i.e., coral and rocky reefs. We found that the body fitness was not affected by reefs type, which means that both habitats seem to offer similar living conditions for shared species.