The growth of Callinectes arcuatus (Ordway, 1863) in the El Colorado Lagoon, Ahome, Sinaloa, Mexico

The size structure of Callinectes arcuatus was determined from 2,786 ind (1,956 males and 830 females) of C. arcuatus, which were collected from March 2012 to March 2013 in El Colorado Lagoon, Sinaloa, Mexico. Sampling was random in grid form considering five stations located within the study area. Measurements of length (CL), the width of the carapace (CW) and total weight (TW) were registered. The average carapace width of C. arcuatus was 9.4 ± 0.03 cm with a minimum of 5.3 cm and a maximum of 19.5 cm. For the length of the carapace (CL) the mean was 4.8 ± 0.02 cm with a minimum of 2.8 cm and a maximum of 9.2 cm, while the total weight varied between 16 and 416 g with an average of 54.0 ± 0.71 g, in both sexes (juveniles and adults).The morphometric relationships between CL-CW were adjusted a linear model. The equation is describing the relation TW-CW, which was adjusted to a potential model with a coefficient of determination of R² = 0.71. The growth parameters estimated using the model of von Bertalanffy, for males was K = 0.84 yr^-1 y CW_∞ = 14.0 cm while for females K = 0.55 yr^-1 and CW_∞ = 15. 6 cm. According to the results obtained, it is observed that the organisms with sizes and maximum weights were presented in juvenile and adult males in C. arcuatus, being slightly larger and heavier than females in similar sizes and according to the growth curves the organisms, this species reaching is the maximum length between 3-4 years old.