Slower Growth Results in Larger Otoliths: An Experimental Test with Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)

Abstract

We demonstrate that slowly growing guppies (Poecilia reticulata) have larger otoliths than equal-sized, rapidly growing guppies. This relationship has been suggested by previous authors, but they compared wild or pond-reared fish from different poopulations, thereby confounding their observations with the different environments. Our experiment controlled for the genetic background, food quality, and the aquatic environment and assessed the influences of food availability and growth rate on relative otolith size. This difference in relative otolith dimensions could aid in comparing growth rates among populations or could improve the use of otolith dimensions for estimating population age structures. In both cases, these methods could also complement data based on counting daily increments or annuli on otoliths and other structures to characterize growth rates and age structures.