Relative Condition Parameters for Fishes of Montana, USA
, Nathaniel M. Heili 2, Christopher S. Guy 3 and David A. Schmetterling 4Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Summary:
The authors justify the present study on the relative-condition parameters for Fishes of Montana, USA, in order to provide a condition index for species that do not have standard-weight models, to add more information for the global database on weight-length relationships of fishes and ultimately to contribute to the management of fish populations. The study aims at analyzing length-weight data of 51 species and 3 subspecies (2,948,583 individuals) obtained from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks between 1951 and 2020. This study present length-weight parameters and condition data range for each species within the state of Montana. The authors then conclude that their results could be used by fisheries biologists to assess trends in fish condition as a potential indicator of environmental changes and general state of well-being.
General comments:
The manuscript is well-written and very pleasant to read. The aim of the study is pertinent. The results are interesting for a preliminary approach, the material and methods and discussion are straight to the point with sufficient references.
Although it was not stated in the introduction as an aim of the manuscript, I would have liked to see the authors inquire specific watershed (or other population management units) averages of Kn for each species (W’ still being calculated over the full sate). This would give information to how well-being each population is within the state relative to each other, thus allowing the authors to inform on potential needs for local management improvements. I would like the authors to add this as it will improve greatly the manuscript and particularly the discussion part on Kn. It does not need to be exhaustive but would illustrate the point made by the author.
The preparation of the manuscript for publication will not require important amendments to improve the manuscript (see the comment above and Specific comments below). I therefore recommend the manuscript to be published after minor corrections.
Specific comments:
Minor issues:
Line 51: add the word data in: “Each species data was downloaded individually using….”
I would like to see the R2 values on each supplemental graph, the asses the quality of the fit.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors
I had a chance to review the manuscript (ID: fishes-2070787) entitled “Relative-Condition Parameters for Fishes of Montana, USA” submitted to fishes.
It is an interesting paper dealing with body condition factor of several fish species from USA.
In my opinion, this manuscript is of interest for publication in fishes, but not in the present form because it needs major revision.
The comments and corrections are all given in the attached file. Some of the major issues are listed here:
1- Coefficient of Determination (R²) of LWRs should be provided.
2- Anova test results (p value, significance) should be given.
3- The fishes should be listed first by Order and then family ranks.
4) Bailey’s test should be implemented to show if the b value (slope) differ from the 3.
(Bailey’s ‘t’ test should be implemented to show if the growth is isometric or allometric ).
5) All the scientific name should be double checked following catalog of fishes (https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp).
7) You are requested to follow some recent published articles on different fish species:
e.g.,
Al Jufaili, S.M.; Sayyadzadeh, G.; Jawad, L. & Esmaeili, H.R. 2021. Length-weight
relationships of five fish species from the inland waters of Oman. Iranian Journal of Ichthyology 8(1): 63-67.
Masoumi, A. H., Al Jufaili, S. M., & Esmaeili, H. R. (2021). Evaluation of length-weight relationship for a native goby, Awaous jayakari (Teleostei: Gobiidae) in the Middle East. International Journal of Aquatic Biology, 9(4), 264-267.
Esmaeili, H. R., Gholamifard, A., Vatandoust, S., Sayyadzadeh, G., Zare, R., & Babaei, S. (2014). Length–weight relationships for 37 freshwater fish species of Iran. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 30(5), 1073-1076.
8) Discussion should be improved.
9) References should be double-checked in the reference section and the main text following journal's format.
Sincerely Yours
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
