Age and growth of the red tilefish, Branchiostegus japonicus in the northern East China Sea.

ABSTRACT

Age and growth of the red tilefish, Branchiostegus japonicus in the northern East China Sea were examined from right otoliths of 591 fish. Marginal increment analysis showed that annual ring formation occurs during the early winter months, supporting the hypothesis that one growth ring is deposited each year Growth of red filefish was expressed by von Bertalanffy's equation as TLt = 61.5[1 - exp{-0.150(t-0.312)}] for males and TLt = 50.6[1 - exp{-0.162 (t + 0.337)}] for females, where TLt is the total length in cm and t is age in years. It was found that females during the first 3 years grew larger than males, but after 3 years females were smaller than males. This phenomenon may be closely related to sexual maturity of red filefish.