Spawning season, recruitment, and growth of the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium lamarrei (H. Milne-Edwards, 1837) in a perennial wetland, northeastern Bangladesh

Spawning season, recruitment, and growth of the freshwater prawn Macrobrachium lamarrei were studied in a perennial wetland, northeastern Bangladesh during October 2016 to September 2017. Spawning season was estimated based on the monthly variations of percent ovigerous females. Recruitment and growth were estimated using the time series of the lengthfrequency distributions. We compared the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF) and the Pauly and Gaschtz growth function (PGGF) to identify any seasonal oscillation in growth rate. Ovigerous females occurred almost throughout the year, indicating a prolonged spawning season with two peaks between March-April (minor peak) and June-September (major peak). Both males and females with modal size ~ 8.0 mm carapace length first recruited in October, which synchronized with the major peak…