COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF LENGTH-WEIGHT RELATIONSHIP AND CONDITION FACTOR OF SOME FISH SPECIES FROM MAIRUA RESERVOIR, KATSINA, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the length-weight relationship and (LWRs) and condition factor of three economically important freshwater fish species from Mairua reservoir, Funtua, Katsina, Nigeria, namely Clarias  gariepinus, Bagrus bayad and Oreochromis  niloticus. In total, 486 specimens of all three fish species were collected from three landing site of the reservoir from June 2024 to November 2025. The fish were identified and separated before being transported alive to the Fisheries and Aquaculture laboratory of the Federal University Dutsin-Ma, Katsina State. At the laboratory, the length was measured to the nearest centimeter using a ruler while a sensitive weighing scale was used to measure the weight in grams. The results showed that all the three species have a negative allometric growth but C. gariepinus have the highest b-value (2.76) followed by O. niloticus (2.07) and lastly B.  bayad  (1.228). There is no significant difference in the mean body weight among the species (P = 0.640). More so, O. niloticus (1.88 ± 0.54) have significantly higher condition factor, followed by B. bayad (1.40 ± 1.25) while C. gariepinus has the lowest K value, (0.77 ± 0.56) with a p value of P= 0.01. Major fish species of Mairua reservoir are experiencing inadequate nutrition, adverse environmental conditions and poor  physiological conditions leading to very low reproduction rate of the  fishes  and  in  turn  halt  fishing  activity  of  the area. Therefore,  there  may  be  need  for  the water quality parameters analysis of both the water and soil  basement  of  Mairua reservoir,  Funtua,  Katsina State, Nigeria.