A comparative study on morphometric and meristic characters of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) in the coasts of India

A total of 200 threadfin bream Nemipterus japonicus was collected from Chennai in the east coast and Kochi in the west coast during January to February 2013 and studied for their morphometric and meristic characters. In total, 21 characters were analyzed out of which 3 characters namely dorsal, ventral and anal fins were not considered since they were unaltered. The findings indicate that 91% of the total variation in the data can be accounted for by three clusters. Small values of 1-R**2 ratio for the three clusters obtained indicate good clustering. The small values of p (≤0.0001) indicate that there are significant differences in the variables of Chennai and Kochi data which are shown through MANOVA. This might depict that the fish of Chennai and Kochi might be of 2 different stocks. Moreover, the study has also aided in identifying the importance of regular monitoring of stock assessment and the biology of commercially important fishes.