Biological features of the chervonoe lake Goldfish

The Chervonoe lake situated in Zhitkovichi district of Gomel region is the crucial water object in the goldfish (C. auratus s. lato) acclimation history in Belarus. The lake with the Beloe and Krasnaya Zorka fisheries located nearby was one of the goldfish distribution centers since 1948. Initially the goldfish population in the lake was represented by the unisexual gynogenetic form. Our study shows that the reproductive biology of this population changed drastically and nowadays the Chervonoe lake goldfish is represented by diploid bisexual amphimyctic form (observed sex ratio was 1♀:1,14♂). The meristic traits’ values observed are typical for the C. auratus s. lato complex fishes, with the highest similarity shown with C. gibelio. The karyotype of the all specimens studied (n=12) contained 100 chromosomes that is typical for the diploid forms of goldfish. We claim the two main reasons caused the changes in the Chervovoe lake goldfish population reproductive biology. The first one is the lack of potential sperm donors required for the unisexual reproduction caused by the extinction in the lake of a number of Cyprinidae species able to inseminate the gynogenetic goldfish eggs (crucian carp, common carp, tench, bream, ide and rudd) by 1966 due to water level lowering, reproduction conditions degradation, winter fish-kills increase and sharp reduction of the forage base. The second reason are the regular winter fish-kills in the lake (approximately 1 time in 10 years) that provide the bisexual amphimyctic population sustainability due to presence of males providing genetic exchange within the population. In contrast, the meristic traits of the population weren’t changed since 1950s1960s. The most likely genetic base of the reproductive strategy change was the gradual increase of diploid specimens share throughout the process of natural selection with the inherent morphology wasn’t affected.

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