Competitive relationship between members of the Gobiidae family and other fish species of waters of Pridneprovye region

Abstract

The paper analyzes the species’ composition of Gobiidae, their quantitative and qualitative parameters in the coastal zone of the Pridneproovye water bodies. The structural and functional features of organization of coastal Gobies groups in the explored territory have been investigated, as well as characteristics of spatial arrangement of Gobiidae family representatives in water bodies and rivers and their role in the coastal groups of fishes. In the waters of Dnipropetrovsk region there were recorded 8 species of the Gobies family: round goby Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814), big-headed goby N. kessleri (Gunter, 1861), monkey goby N. fluviatilis (Pallas, 1814), goad goby N. gymnotrachelus (Kessler, 1857), toad goby Mesogobius batrachocephalus (Pallas, 1814), tube-nosed goby Proterorhinus marmoratus (Pallas, 1814), starry goby Benthophilus stellatus (Sauvage, 1874), Brauner’s tadpole goby Benthophiloides brauneri (Beling et Iljin, 1927). The gobies are quickly settled in various water bodies. The highest numbers of Gobiidae were registered in Dneprovsky water basin – 113.8 specimens/100 m2. The dominant among the Gobiidae is monkey goby, and subdominant is round goby. The main food competitor of monkey goby are juveniles of commercial fish. In Samara river the index of trophic niche overlap between goby and roach reaches 0.95, between goby and silver bream – 0.91, between goby and crucian carp – 0.88, between goby and rudd – 0.87, between goby and common bream – 0.62. The number and biomass indicators in Samara river have fallen due to trophic competition between new aggressive fish species – pumpkinseed and Gobiidae. In the Ingulets river the total overlap of trophic niches is observed between N. fluviatilis and black-striped pipefish (1.0), almost complete overlap is recorded between monkey goby and pumpkinseed (0.97). It is found that native species of Dnipropetrovsk region (including commercial species) undergo intense trophic pressure on the part of low value, “weed” or alien species

Keywords

• трофічна конкуренція
• Бичкові
• водойми Придніпров’я
• аборигенні види