Continued human population growth has resulted in increased demand for products, including those derived from aquaculture. The main challenge in aquaculture is producing more every year. In recent years, environmentally friendly supplements that provide the necessary pathways for optimal production have been emphasized. One of them is prebiotics, selectively utilized substrates by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit. Interest in applying prebiotics in global fish farming has increased in recent years as it has been shown to improve growth, boost the immune system, resist stress conditions, and cause the modulation of digestive enzymes. These effects reflect reduced production and disease costs. However, in Latin American countries such as Mexico, large-scale use of these food supplements is needed as a sustainable alternative to improve fish production. This paper gives a review of the current advances obtained with the application of prebiotics in commercially farmed fish worldwide, mentions the prebiotics to use in the aquaculture industry, and updates the status of studies about the used prebiotics in global commercial fish cultivated in Mexico, as well as freshwater and marine endemic fish in this country. Also, the limitations of prebiotics application in terms of their use and legislation are analyzed.

<!--Galleys --> <!--Full Text:--> PDF <!--END GALLEYS---> Abstract Among Bagre genera, there is a high variation in the estimation of age, a concern due to overexploitation risk in fisheries because of age underestimation. Bagre panamensis is an important fishery resource of the Mexican Pacific and the Gulf of California. Its age is known from otoliths, but its accuracy needs to be confirmed, and the periodicity of the otoliths record validated. The external morphology, some microstructure attributes, and age record of B. panamensis' otoliths were described from 371 specimens collected southeast of the Gulf of California. The lapilli otoliths were larger than the sagittae and asterisci otoliths. The lapilli otoliths present aragonite crystals with a prismatic shape, and their growth is radial, from the core to the otolith edge. The lapilli otoliths form an annual growth ring, defined by the slowdown in the growth that occurs during April to July, during the breeding season. The ages of the individuals ranged from 1 to 15 years, and the applied method is considered adequate and accurate for its estimation (otolith cross-sectioning and red-neutral staining).

Cynoscion reticulatus has been a significant resource in the Mexican Pacific for over 20 years. However, it lacks management measures due to a lack of biological-fishery information. For this reason, this study aimed to analyze the relative growth using a multimodel approach to facilitate and increase the accuracy of using structured models to estimate biomass. Therefore, three models were compared to determine which best describes the species' ontogeny. The results showed that a broken line model can aptly describe the species' relative growth, as it identifies the point of change in the growth trend. It pinpointed the same relative growth pattern in both sexes; in males, the growth switched from positive allometric to negative allometric after 34.2 cm total length (TL), whereas in females, it occurred after 33.3 cm TL. This growth pattern was linked to the species' reproductive physiology. The information gathered is crucial for fisheries assessment, as it can serve as input data in dynamic models of low or high complexity, offering swiftly obtained information for stock evaluation, allowing the determination of a resource's status and estimating biomass to manage target species appropriately.

Drums and croakers (Sciaenidae) are important to the species composition of coastal catches in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Among these species, the striped corvina (Cynoscion reticulatus) stands out because of its high fishery potential, high demand, and increased market value. The striped croaker has been under constant fishing pressure over the past 20 years. Still, there needs to be current biological information or reference points to allow the establishment of management measures for fisheries. The objective of the present study was to estimate the mean standard length at sexual maturity (SL50) of females using various models and to suggest a minimum catch size (MCS) for C. reticulatus off the southern coast of Sinaloa. Monthly samplings of coastal fishery landings were done from December 2020 to December 2021 on the south coast of Sinaloa. The SL50 was evaluated based on 3 candidate models (Gompertz, Lysack, and White) through a binomial approach. Confidence intervals for SL50 were estimated using likelihood profiles and contours, and Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) was used to select the best model. A total of 284 individuals were examined, of which 131 were used in calculations. White’s model was the most adequate; however, based on AIC weights, all 3 models performed similarly, and SL50 (24.48 cm; C.I. 95% 12.9–70 36.0 cm) was estimated as their average. As a management measure, we propose a precautionary MCS of 36 cm SL for C. reticulatus off southern Sinaloa.

Fishes are highly diverse and over time they have developed interesting reproductive behaviors to help the survival of their offspring and ensure the continuity of the species. Some species, such as fish from the Balistidae family (triggerfish, pistolfish, etc.), exhibit protective behavior, where both parents, the female and male, have their different roles, before, during and after spawning; which include the building and caring of nests where they lay their young. Their protective style is a great example of the dedication and effort that some species have to make to care for their offspring. Balistidae are very important for ecosystems and as food for humans, and knowing them can help their conservation.

Relative growth and body condition of the Finescale Triggerfish (Balistes polylepis) were evaluated using fishery-dependent data from the southeastern Gulf of California across eight sampling periods between 2002 and 2024. Growth consistently showed a negative allometric pattern, with marked ontogenetic shifts occurring within a narrow size range closely associated with sexual maturity and likely changes in habitat use. These growth transitions indicate reallocation of energy from somatic development toward reproduction. The condition factor varied significantly among periods but generally remained close to unity, indicating good overall physiological status of the population. Although lower condition values coincided with the extreme El Niño event of 2015–2016, the association between climatic anomalies and body condition was not statistically significant, suggesting broad resilience to regular environmental variability and potential sensitivity only during extreme events. These results highlight the importance of accounting for ontogenetic growth shifts when assessing population dynamics and provide ecological insight relevant for the management of this exploited species.