Abstract:
To understand the relationship between the morphological traits and the body mass of coral trout (
Plectropomus leopardus) is important for its breeding. In this study, we selected 159 individuals of the same batch of 4-month-old
P. leopardus juveniles as the experimental objects to explore the correlation between the eleven morphological traits and body mass. The results show that there were significnat correlation between snout length (
x9) and body mass (
P<0.05), and extremely significant correlation between the other ten morphological traits and body mass. The results of path analysis reveals that the standard length (
x2), body depth (
x4), body width (
x5), head height (
x7), snout length (
x9) were the main decisive morphological traits on body mass. The direct effect coefficient of body depth on body mass was 0.444, indicating that body depth mainly affected body mass through direct action. However, the other morphological traits mainly affected body mass indirectly via body depth. The total decision coefficient of five morphological traits on body mass was 0.853, indicating that these morphological traits were the main factors affecting body mass. After eliminating the morphological traits with insignificant coefficient to body mass, we established the multiple regression equation by multiple regression analysis. The morphological traits retained by the multiple regression analysis were consistent with that by path analysis.