Allometric scaling in growth and reproduction of a freshwater loach Nemacheilus mooreh (Sykes)

Self-similar systems are best described as power functions, known as allometric scaling relationships in biological context. Understanding the relationships among changes in various somatic and gonadal (reproductive) tissues with increasing body size can provide valuable ecological information and may shed light on evolutionary trends. In this paper we have discussed how different somatic and gonadal tissues of a freshwater loach Nemacheilus mooreh (Sykes, 1839) scale with each other. We observed that tissues, which directly influence the reproductive success, show non-isometric relationships, i.e. relations not scaled as per the Euclidian geometry, with high values of exponents than expected; while tissues, which directly do not influence the reproductive behavior scale as per the Euclidian geometry. This finding suggests that the scaling exponents could be subject to selection towards higher reproductive efficiency. As different species have different r and K selection strategies we believe that the allometric scaling may not be universal as has been advocated before.