Reproductive Biology of Barb Species (Puntius spp) in FUTA Wetlands and Ala River

Abstract

This study is conducted to determine the Length-Weight relationship, Fecundity of barbs species collected from Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) wetlands and Ala river. Three species of barb fish (Puntius javanicus, Puntius Chola, Puntius sophore) were found within the study locations. The growth pattern of the sample fish was discovered to be negative isometric that is the b values of each specie were less than 3. The values of b reported in this study also implied that P. javanicus, P. sophore and P. chola did not follow cube law (b=3) strictly. The condition factor of the studied fish was in a good condition with the highest and lowest average value of 1.68±0.51 (P. javanicus) and 4.07±0.60 (P. sophore) for FUTA river. The fecundity of P. javanicus and P. sophore at FUTA river ranged between 36eggs to 81eggs and 31 to 104 eggs respectively while at Ala river, the fecundity of P. javanicus and P. chola ranged between 22eggs to 57eggs and 22 to 77eggs respectively. The relationship of fecundity with length and weight has been calculated and summarized.