Abstract:In the present study, growth rates of Parabramis pekinensis (PP), and their hybrids (AT, TA, AP, and PA) were compared to investigate growth and morphological differences. Three multivariate morphometric analyses were conducted to assess morphological variations based on meristic parameters, measurable scaling parameters, and truss network scaling parameters. In the first group, absolute weight gain rates of AT and TA were significantly greater than that of TT but were all lower than that of AA (0.36 g/d) (<0.05). Growth rate of AA was 2.4, 1.2, and 1.3 times that of TT (0.15 g/d), AT (0.30 g/d), and TA (0.27 g/d), respectively. In the second group, the absolute weight gain rate of AA was also the largest (0.24 g/d), which was 1.7, 1.4, and 1.6 times greater than that of PP (0.14 g/d), AP (0.17 g/d), and PA (0.15 g/d), respectively. The growth rate of AA was significantly faster than that of TT and PP (<0.05), and the growth rate of their hybrid offspring was between that of their parents; lower than that of AA, but higher than that of TT or PP. In addition, no differences in countable characters were detected among the seven groups (>0.05). Based on the nine measurable scaling parameters and 20 truss network scaling parameters, a cluster analysis revealed that the hybrids were closer to their female parent than to their male parent; namely, the relationships with TA and TT were closer than the relationships with AA, AT, AP, and PA. A discriminant analysis using the morphological characteristics of the seven breeding groups was carried out, resulting in a high comprehensive discriminant rate of 86.30%. A principal component analysis (PCA) showed that three main PCs were obtained with a cumulative contribution rate of 95.81% of total variation, which represented the major morphological variation in the seven breeding groups. Furthermore, traits with a larger feature vector absolute value for PC1 were mostly concentrated in the head and dorsal-ventral axis, whereas traits influenced by PC2 were mostly concentrated in the tail. Overall, these results provide a theoretical basis for fish breeding and identifying germplasm.