Age and growth of two barracuda species Sphyraena chrysotaenia and S. flavicauda (Family: Sphyraenidae) from the Gulf of Suez, Egypt

Barracudas are commercial group of fishes caught by trawling, purse seine, gill net and trammel nets in the Gulf of Suez. Samples of Sphyraena chrysotaenia and Sphyraena flavicauda were collected monthly from Attaka and El Salakhana landing sites during the period from February 2013 to February 2014. The length weight relationship was estimated as W = 0.012 * L2.731, r2 = 0.915 for S. chrysotaenia and W = 0.011 * L2.730, r2 = 0.959 for S. flavicauda Age determination based on otolith reading was estimated from 712 specimens of S. chrysotaenia and 83 specimens of S. flavicauda. Growth analysis revealed that both species are relatively short lived with a maximum life span of five years for S. chrysotaenia and six years for S. flavicauda. Age group two was the most predominant in the catch represented by about 50.0% of the individuals of S. chrysotaenia. For S. flavicauda age groups two and three constituted the bulk of the catch. No differences in growth rate between the sexes for both studied species were observed and the estimated von Bertalanffy growth parameters for combined sexes were L∞ = 29.37 cm, k = 0.48 y−1 and to = −1.02 years for S. chrysotaenia and L∞ = 41.21 cm, k = 0.39 y−1 and to = −1.143 for S. flavicauda. The growth performance index was Ø = 2.617 and Ø = 2.822 for both species respectively.