• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.370-375
• /
• 2013

Exotic species in aquatic ecosystem generate various problems domestically as well as globally. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) which is a well-known exotic species globally, acts as a substantial disturbance factor on the native fish communities in Korea due to the high predation pressure and hence designated as a ecologically harmful species by Ministry of Environment. In this study, we investigated the impact of largemouth bass on Korean native fish population, crucian carp (Carassius auratus), to identify responses of the prey fish. Two fish species were collected at seven reservoirs distributed at the Nakdong River catchment area, and changes in length-frequency and length-weight relationship (LWR) were analysed depending on existence of large-mouth bass. At bass absent sites, ratio of under age 1 year individuals were small, and over age two years were dominant. Conversely, normal length-frequency distribution pattern was identified at bass absent sites. The LWR of crucian carp (fish smaller than total length of 160 mm were only considered as it is frequently consumed by bass predation) was different depending upon bass existence. The value of parameter b at bass absent reservoirs was 2.909, which was smaller than that of bass present reservoirs, 3.100. Our results imply that crucian carp at bass present reservoirs presented a different strategy to survive from predation by bass, through relatively rapid growth. We propose that other native species might have similar growth strategies like crucian carp.