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¹ Technological Educational Institution (T.E.I.) of Messolonghi, Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries, 30200 Messolonghi, Greece
² Alexandrian Technological Educational Institution (A.T.E.I.) of Thessaloniki, Department of Fisheries Technology and Aquaculture, 63200 N. Moudania, Greece Viewed : 4233 - Downloaded : 3486 Variation in eight morphometric characteristics of the fry of four grey mullets species (Liza aurata, Liza saliens, Chelon labrosus and Mugil cephalus, Pisces: Mugilidae), all within the total length class of 20-35 mm (the grey mullets fry in this class size are the target of aquaculturists for stocking), in western Greece, was examined by using multivariate analysis. The relatively lower values of coefficients of variance (CV<20%) indicated a high heritability for each character, while the discriminant analysis revealed that about 92.7 % of the examined specimens could be correctly distinguished and classified in the four species. The discriminant analysis and the unweigthed per-group method with arithmetic averaging (UPGMA) cluster analysis based on the Mahalanobis distance between group centroids showed that M. cephalus and C. labrosus were quite similar in morphology, while L. aurata and L. saliens were rather different. The results of this study revealed that in contrast to the current perception, the analysis of the morphometric variation of mullet fry could be used for their discrimination. Keywords : fry, grey mullet, multivariate analysis, morphometric