Age and growth of three common species of goatfish exploited by artisanal fishery in Hurghada fishing area, Egypt

Summary The age and growth of three goatfish species Mulloidichthys flavolineatus (Lacepède, 1801), Mulloidichthys vanicolensis (Valenciennes, 1831) and Parupeneus forsskali (Fourmanoir & Guézé, 1976) from Egyptian Red Sea, Hurghada region were studied based on otolith readings. The fishing operated mainly by gill and tramml nets with mesh sizes renging from 0.5 to 3 cm. The maximum longevity of the three species was found to be 6, 5 and 5 years for M. flavolineatus, M. vanicolensis and P. forsskali respectively. The age I was the dominant age group forming 50.18% for M. flavolineatus and 46.13% for P. forsskali. While age group II was most frequent in M. vanicolensis (50.67%). The asymptotic length (L∞) and the growth rate (K) were estimated with 38, 33.3 and 31.6 cm as well as with 0.27, 0.37 and 0.32 per year for M. flavolineatus, M. vanicolensis and P. forsskali, respectively.